What Is The What

Quote #1, page five, paragraph 5." Tell me that, Africa, are you telling me what to do, ************?"
Significance: Well, first off the man who is saying this is saying it to the main character, Valentino achak Deng. The man who is saying this is in the middle of robbing him. This is because his coworker, a woman, asks if Valentino has a phone. He accidentally lets her in, and it goes down hill from there. I will just say that this book is a bit confusing, it jumps around a lot. But I am very much enjoying it. Anyway the significance of this quote is that they are almost picking on him because he is African and still new in America. This is because he doesn't know not to let anyone in to his house (strangers). They even tell him that in the middle of the robbing. They also call him Africa, and curse a lot, directly to him. Connection: Well my personal connection is pretty lame. My parents have always told me not to answer the door to strangers. So at this particular situation I would have done fine, and told her that I didn't have a phone, or not answer it in the first place. Question: If you saw these people at the door, but didn't know who they were, and they were getting angry, what would you do?


Quote #2, page 67, paragraph 12. "Please. How will we live if you steal from us ?"

Significance: I will just kind of half answer the question, what was the main characters role. The main character, Valentino Achak Deng was only a boy when he lived in Africa, (so far) but I do know what his roles are now. He goes to a school, for a brief learning session every day, and goes to work occasionally with his father. His father is a seller of different things, one being sugar. I am pretty sure that he sells at a market where a lot of Arabs visit to buy goods. There is a war going on, and a soldier asks Valentino's dad for sugar, for the army to eat. He tells him that he could buy as much as he wanted, but instead he left with a huge bag of sugar without paying. Valentino's dad was furious, therefore he was the one who said my quote, he said it to the soldier who may have just ruined his business. A personal connection to this was probably in seventh grade, at lunch. It had just been Easter a few weeks prior, and I had been packed with an insane amount of candy. I was very excited, and on my way to lunch I went to get my lunch, but it wasn't there. Someone had stolen all of my sugar the same way that Valentino's dad sugar had been stolen. Question: If you were a soldier and you could just go around demanding, and threatening people to give you food, would you do it?

-Matt H