A Long Walk to Water Review

By Felix

After reading A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, there were many things that I thought about. In the story, there were many times where it had impacted me. The time where it had impacted me the most is when the boy had hung on to Salva to survive in the Gilo river, but he was fatally shot by one of the soldiers on the river bank. This impacts me because it shows the boy’s desire to survive when they were crossing the Gilo, yet sacrificing himself to save Salva. Another time where the story had impacted me is when Salva reunites with his dad. Salva followed his uncle’s directions, never gave up hope and finally reunites with his father.

I think that Linda Sue Park wanted us to convey that we shouldn’t give up in hard times. Just as Salva’s Uncle had said “ One step at a time,”  Salva persisted the heat of the desert with the reluctant sun, the peril of the Gilo river which included gunshots and crocodiles, and most importantly, the death of his uncle. Nya had to persist the long walk to the pond, Akhere’s sickness and the same as Salva, not giving up hope. Hope was a big motif for this story in which Nya and Salva had never given up hope. I think the symbolism in this story is that Salva represents the people who never gave up in hard times which we should all do. 

I think the story A Long Walk to Water was a book that talks about a real-life issue that all of us should take into account and help countries like Sudan overcome this problem. We should never give up hope and we should always take one step at a time like Salva does.