Fireweed
Fireweed
Baluta and some of his family have moved from Liberia in Africa. It is properly a result of a war caused by “blood diamantes”. We are not told which country Baluta moved to, but it’s an English speaking country.
Baluta speaks and understands English very well. That properly means he has lived there for a couple of years. He is earning his money by working as a carpenter. But that doesn't make him a millionaire. As you already can sense in the start of the story, it’s showed by, they cannot afford a new and bigger bed or a new car or anything else that could make their lives more pleasant. Another sign is that he lives with his brother and sister-of-law. And they all have to share one bathroom. Baluta is the only one in the family who goes to work by car because there is no bus to the place he works. He doesn’t like that fact; that the rest of the family has to get up very early to take the bus, he wishes that they all could have a car even if it’s an old and used one. Witch also is something that could indicate that the family doesn’t have a lot of money.
The story is easy to understand, but doesn’t contains many descriptions of the environment so in that case we have to guess a bit. But it contains a lot of flashbacks to Baluta’s life in Liberia. All these flashbacks appear because something from Baluta’s life in the new country reminds him of something and someone from his life in Liberia. The first flashback appears when he is taking a cold bath in the morning. “Cold like Kpatawee Falls back home in Liberia, Baluta thought”. And at that point he knows that the day is going to be a day he will remember for the rest of his life. The story stretches over a single day, it is written in third person.
In the beginning of the essay Baluta wakes up from a nightmare. In the nightmare he sees his sister Alanso stirrers at him from the dead. It seems like his sister’s death had given him a harsh time. The Maine theme could very well be exactly like that
Baluta and some of his family have moved from Liberia in Africa. It is properly a result of a war caused by “blood diamantes”. We are not told which country Baluta moved to, but it’s an English speaking country.
Baluta speaks and understands English very well. That properly means he has lived there for a couple of years. He is earning his money by working as a carpenter. But that doesn't make him a millionaire. As you already can sense in the start of the story, it’s showed by, they cannot afford a new and bigger bed or a new car or anything else that could make their lives more pleasant. Another sign is that he lives with his brother and sister-of-law. And they all have to share one bathroom. Baluta is the only one in the family who goes to work by car because there is no bus to the place he works. He doesn’t like that fact; that the rest of the family has to get up very early to take the bus, he wishes that they all could have a car even if it’s an old and used one. Witch also is something that could indicate that the family doesn’t have a lot of money.
The story is easy to understand, but doesn’t contains many descriptions of the environment so in that case we have to guess a bit. But it contains a lot of flashbacks to Baluta’s life in Liberia. All these flashbacks appear because something from Baluta’s life in the new country reminds him of something and someone from his life in Liberia. The first flashback appears when he is taking a cold bath in the morning. “Cold like Kpatawee Falls back home in Liberia, Baluta thought”. And at that point he knows that the day is going to be a day he will remember for the rest of his life. The story stretches over a single day, it is written in third person.
In the beginning of the essay Baluta wakes up from a nightmare. In the nightmare he sees his sister Alanso stirrers at him from the dead. It seems like his sister’s death had given him a harsh time. The Maine theme could very well be exactly like that