Long Walk to Water

The book "A Long Walk to Water" is two stories of survival about boy an a girl from Sudan. The male main character, Salva’s, story is about him fleeing from from his home because of the war going on in Sudan between the government and the rebels. While Salva was fleeing he had no family or friends to help him on his journey at first because he left abruptly. During his process of fleeing and as Salva had gotten older he helped young boys who were like him, people who had to flee from their homes, survive. The female main character, Nya’s, story is about her taking care of her family. A theme that appeared frequently in the book was some you have to take more responsibilities in order to help others.

The theme of this book relates to the main character Salva because even though Salva was only seventeen at the time and still crying and searching for his lost family he took responsibility and helped the other boys in need. For example, on page 81 it said, "Crowds of other boys followed him, Salva had become the leader of a group of about fifteen hundred boys. He organized the group, giving everyone a job: scavenger for food; collect firewood;stand guard while the group slept. Whatever food or water they found was shared equally." This shows how Salva stepped up and took more responsibility to help the other lost boys.

The theme of the book "A Long Walk to Water" relates to the main character Nya because even thought she was young she had to take care of her family. For example, in the book it said Nya had to walk many miles with her sister on her back. She had to walk to the village with the medicine that could heal her sister from the dirty water her sister, Akeer, drank. Another example how Nya helped the family and took responsibility is every day Nya walks eight hours to the lake and eight hours back to her home with a fifteen pound jug of water. This paragraph shows how Nya took more responsibility and walked sixteen hours a day to collect water for her family and took care of her sister when she was sick.

All in all, both main characters, Salva and Nya both stepped up and took an obligation to help others. Salva helped lost boys survive and Nya helped her family survive. This shows how people sometimes have to step up and help people even if they are not ready, because when Nya helped her family she was only eleven and when Salva helped the lost boys he was only sixteen.