Life Of Walter Burke In Anthony Grooms's Bombingham

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Abstract: In a hot summer, an 11-year-old black boy, first loses faith and then hope: that is how Anthony Grooms depicts the life of Walter Burke in Birmingham, Alabama in his novel Bombingham. The novel begins with Walter Burke – the protagonist – who is drafted to be a soldier in Vietnam War. When he loses his friend Haywood in the minefield, he decides to write a letter to his parents as promised. However, his attempts to write a letter reveal the flashbacks of his summer in 1963 in Birmingham, during the Civil Rights Movements and 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. In this essay, I will travel to the depths of little Walter's soul who in spite of his young age suffers from anxiety, fear and tumult in his beloved Birmingham due to his