Written By Anne Connie Stuksrud's Secrets In The Fire

1072 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Fahreinheit 451 symbolism of fire

‘Secrets in the Fire’ written by Henning Mankell and translated by Anne Connie Stuksrud, is a heartfelt novel based on the true story of an indomitable young girl Sofia, living within war-torn Mozambique. It was an old woman from her village who originally taught Sofia about the secrets in the fire, deeply within the dancing flames forthcoming events are foreseen. However, not even the village’s wise women, Muazena, was aware of the horrors which the fire revealed to her. In her extensive journey towards rebuilding her life, Sofia must resort to maturing promptly to overcome multiple adversities such as losing her sister and both her legs in the same tragic incident. Along the way, Sofia treasures opportunities through education and learning …show more content…

Eager to learn the aspect of reading, writing and achieving basic sums whilst attending an education program, thrills both young girl. When Sofia's birth place was destroyed by The Bandits, resulting in the death of her father Hapakatanda, Muazena and additional relatives, Sofia with her remaining family whom survived the ambush were forced to flee to a new, unharmed township. As their hometown was lacking educational curriculums, Sofia and Maria were initially committed to working in the fields to obtain money for their family. As they become aware of school being for only 3 hours in the afternoon, they convince their mother, Lydia, to approve their wishes of attending school by stating ‘The white priest wants all children to go to school-maybe we should obey him.’ (pg. 37) Agreeing they would continue to labor within the fields, Lydia respects the ‘white peoples’ requests and admire her daughters’ optimistic desires to overcome the loss of their father. The night following her first day of school, it becomes evident that Sofia was cheerful towards attending school, it inspired her confidence. ‘She sat and stared into the fire. Sofia believed that the day ahead of her would be right. And she was looking forward to it’. (pg. 41) Even though their school was unable to afford; books, paper, pens or chalk for the blackboard, Sofia sustained a positive attitude and enthusiasm gained from education to overcome the fearful thought of the new village and cope with the loss of loved

Show More
Related

  • Case Study: Should I Take Juanita Pope

    947 Words  | 2 Pages

    Often the change and transition to middle is a difficult one for students, so it is no surprise that a student of Juanita’s caliber would be having trouble as well. Her regular middle school teachers were not going above and beyond to make sure Juanita succeed, if anything it seemed as if Juanita was a burden to them. If it was not for the Ms. Issabelle’s effort, Juanita would have failed the 6th grade, and possibly fell through the cracks of the education system.

    Read More

  • The Motif Of Fire In Homegoing By Yaa Gyasi

    1086 Words  | 3 Pages

    Firstly, the motif of fire is portrayed during times of trauma due to the fact that in the beginning of the story, it starts with a baby name Effia being “born of the fire” (ebook 2). Effia’s mother Maame sets a fire that

    Read More

  • Alienation In The Poisonwood Bible

    943 Words  | 2 Pages

    When thrown into a foreign country where everything new is particularly strange and revolting, the Price family would be expected to become closer; however, the exile from their homeland only serves to drive the family farther apart. In Leah’s case, as a impressionable child in need of guidance in a dramatically foreign country, she remains loyal to her father, idolizing his close-minded ways. This blind devotion unknowingly

    Read More

  • Optimism In A Thousand Splendid Suns

    650 Words  | 2 Pages

    For her 15th birthday, Mariam asked Jalil if he could take her to his cinema to watch Pinocchio. She also asked if Jalil could bring her brothers and sisters so she could meet them. Both Nana and Jalil thought it wasn’t a good idea, but Mariam insisted on going, so Jalil said he would send someone to pick her up. Mariam did not like this idea and said that she wanted to be picked up by Jalil. Jalil reluctantly agreed. Later that day, Mariam gets the backlash and hate from her mother from her decision: “Of all the daughters I could have had, why did God give me an ungrateful one like you? …How dare you abandon me like this, you treacherous little harami!” Mariam wakes up the next day, disappointed and fed up since Jalil did not come to pick her up. She heads out to town to find Jalil herself. She makes it to his house when a chauffeur tells Mariam that Jalil was “away on urgent business.” She slept outside of his house and was awoken by the chauffeur, telling her that he would take her home. Mariam snatches away from the chauffeur’s grip and turns around towards the house, to see Jalil in an upstairs window. It was then that Mariam figured out that all she was to Jalil was a disgrace. Jalil had always been careful with the information he told Mariam. He may have loved her, but only on his own terms. Once Mariam realizes that her father allowed her to sleep on the street rather than bring her into his

    Read More

  • Our Secret by Susan Griffin

    440 Words  | 1 Pages

    In "Our Secret" by Susan Griffin, the essay uses fragments throughout the essay to symbolize all the topics and people that are involved. The fragments in the essay tie together insides and outsides, human nature, everything affected by past, secrets, cause and effect, and development with the content. These subjects and the fragments are also similar with her life stories and her interviewees that all go together. The author also uses her own memories mixed in with what she heard from the interviewees. Her recollection of her memory is not fully told, but with missing parts and added feelings. Her interviewee's words are told to her and brought to the paper with added information. She tells throughout the book about these recollections.

    Read More

  • Knowledge and Poverty in The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara

    1219 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout The Lesson Toni Cade Bambara illustrated how education is the means by which one can escape out of poverty. This was not done in a classroom structured environment it took place on a sunny afternoon field trip in which the children on the trip was confronted with their own deficiency. There was resistance but as each individual longed for a toy in the store the apparent realism displayed itself. The extremely high price for the toys was an amount that their families could live on for a while. Each child was put in a place where he/ she had to examine themselves, their social conditions and their future. Bambara used race through social status, economic inequality, and literary epiphany to identify the hidden realities in each child life.

    Read More

  • Our Secret by Susan Griffin

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    Susan Griffin's "Our Secret" is a study in psychology. It is a look into the human mind to see what makes people do the things they do and in particular what makes people commit acts of violence. She isolates the first half of the twentieth century and in particular the era of the Second World War as a basis for her study. The essay discusses a number of people but they all tie in to Heinrich Himmler. He is the extreme case, he who can be linked directly to every single death in the concentration camps. Griffin seeks to examine Himmler because if she can discern a monster like Himmler than everyone else simply falls into place. The essay also tries to deduce why something like the Holocaust, although never mentioned directly, can take place. How can so many people be involved and yet so few people try to end it.

    Read More

  • Andrea Elliot's Invisible Children

    1642 Words  | 4 Pages

    Elliot tells the story of Dasani, an eleven-year-old living with seven siblings, mother, and father all in one room in the Auburn Family Residence, a worn out city-run shelter for the homeless (Elliot). Auburn Family Residence is covered in mold, roaches, feces, and is where predators prey on small children (Elliot). Dasani takes care of her family, mostly her baby sister, making sure she can give her all she needs. Her parents, Chanel and Supreme, are dysfunctional, unemployed, and have a history of arrest and drugs abuse (Elliot). Although Dasani’s life is very tragic, she still has hope that not only she can make it out of this lifestyle, but also her family will be able to make it out as well. Even though Dasani is homeless, she still manages to go to Susan S. McKinney Secondary School of the Arts, where most students are black and live in the surrounding projects (Elliot). In this first part of Dasani’s life, Elliot describes how teachers believe that Dasani is intelligent, even though she sometimes gets in trouble. Since her parents are unemployed, on a good month they receive around a few hundred dollars, but never seem to make it last (Elliot). Not only does this story include very descriptive details about Dasani’s life, but it also includes unsatisfactory descriptive pictures of Dasani’s home and school. In this mini-series, Elliot was open to a lot of criticism because of how she depicts Dasani's life. (Add another or two sentence about

    Read More

  • Waiting For Superman Reflection Paper

    1477 Words  | 3 Pages

    The film follows the stories of Anthony, Bianca, Daisy, Emily, and Francisco as their family’s attempt to improve the quality of their education. It was assumed

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Book ' Of The Unknown Americans '

    1069 Words  | 3 Pages

    When they first arrived to the United States their only hopes were that they would have a better life and that there were better special education programs for Maribel to attend at Evers. Alma imagined that the buildings would look a lot nicer than they really were. The family was surprised that they could take things from the street that someone threw out of their house, but were in working condition. When they arrived they didn’t think that you would actually have to learn English to be able to communicate, but after going to stores and interacting with people they learned that they need to learn English if they want to live in America. They hoped that you could be able to afford anything in America by working, but based off of the money Arturo was making they learned that you can’t buy everyth...

    Read More

  • Jo Ann Argersinger's The Triangle Fire

    691 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the book “The Triangle Fire: A Brief History with Documents” by Jo Ann E. Argersinger. In a short summary this book talks about the tragic factory fire that took lives of 146 workers in New York City, March 25, 1911. The tragedy happened during the great uprising of a women revolution, of many young females going to work to support their families. During this period many women wanted to be treated and work like how men worked. Having equal rights at jobs that were a risk to them, nothing stopped the uprising, until the fire became a change. Both sympathy and rage among all sectors of the American public got up to fight for a change. Argersinger examines in the context, trajectory, and impact of this Progressive Era event. During the Progressive Era, many big changes were being

    Read More

  • Our Secret by Susan Griffin

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    Perhaps no other event in modern history has left us so perplexed and dumbfounded than the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany, an entire population was simply robbed of their existence. In “Our Secret,” Susan Griffin tries to explain what could possibly lead an individual to execute such inhumane acts to a large group of people. She delves into Heinrich Himmler’s life and investigates all the events leading up to him joining the Nazi party. In“Panopticism,” Michel Foucault argues that modern society has been shaped by disciplinary mechanisms deriving from the plague as well as Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, a structure with a tower in the middle meant for surveillance. Susan Griffin tries to explain what happened in Germany through Himmler’s childhood while Foucault better explains these events by describing how society as a whole operates.

    Read More

  • Another Holiday for the Prince

    1168 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...eral topic of school. The sister strives to graduate and go to school even though she is poor while her brother blames the school for him dropping out and not graduating. “I got out my social studies. Hot legs has this idea of a test every Wednesday” (118). This demonstrates that she is driven to study for class and get good grades while her brother tries to convince her that school is worth nothing and that there is no point in attending. “‘Why don’t you get out before they chuck you out. That’s all crap,’ he said, knocking the books across the floor. ‘You’ll only fail your exam and they don’t want failures, spoils their bloody numbers. They’ll ask you to leave, see if they don’t’” (118). The brother tries to convince his sister that school is not a necessity and that living the way he does, being a drop out living in a poverty stricken family is the best thing.

    Read More

  • The Fire By Octavia Butler Chapter 2 Summary

    575 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The Fire,” chapter two of the novel “Kindred” by Octavia E. Butler is about how Dana survives in the past after she is conscious of where and when she is. The story starts with Dana frightened of being transported again, which she did. After saving the boy, Rufus, from burning his house, she discovered that she has gone to the past, 1815, and that Rufus was her ancestor. Since it was the age where slavery was present, she escaped Rufus’ house in fear of being slaved to search for Alice, another one of her ancestor, hoping to get shelter. She found it at the time Alice’s family was raided by the whites, and Alice’s father was captured. She helped Alice’s family, but soon after she was discovered by a white man. Dana knocked him unconscious, then returned home. Afterwards, Kevin and her prepared Dana in an event where she get transported again.

    Read More

  • Utopia Vs Herland

    1841 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the Herland society education was a very important and valued aspect. Children were taught by the more experienced women of the society. Children appeared to enjoy their studies. This had a lot to do with how education was provided to the children. Learning was made to be fun and exploratory. It was hands-on and as the children progressed, their individual talents and interests were noticed and encouraged. “Beauty, health, Strength, Intellect, Goodness-for these they prayed and worked” (Gilman, p. 61). The theme throughout the novel indicated that the women were highly educated, and made every opportunity a hands-on learning experience. Even the arrival of the three men who were exploring became an educational experiment as they immediately began teaching the men their own language. Gilman noted that after capture, the men were each given a book to learn the Herland language, “we were indeed to learn the language, and not only that, but to teach our own” (p.

    Read More

More about Written By Anne Connie Stuksrud's Secrets In The Fire

Open Document