Uwem Akpan's Say You Re One Of Them

Say You’re One of Them

While reading Say You’re One of Them I became emotionally drawn to the characters. I found that the short stories were a sad and harsh reality check. This could be because all of the stories were written in the perspective of a child, or the issues involved. Uwem Akpan tells very saddening stories about prejudices against religion, and ethnicity, and the violence that goes along with that. He also tells about the everyday struggle of poverty between families. I was aware that these issues occurred, not only foreign countries, but in the United States as well, but I never had a first hand look at the personal effects it had on families. While reading What Language is That? I found that I could really relate to the young girls. I remember being that age and having an inseparateable best friend, someone who just knows everything about you. I could not imagine one day, out of nowhere being told to just forget about them. I was pleased to find out that the girls followed their hearts instead of listening to their parents. What compelled me most though, was the pure innocence of the girls. They did not care about the differences their parents did, they only knew the importance of their friendship. I think it is really sad to put distorted ideas and feelings
I can imagine it was a major deal sixty years ago, but now, not so much. With the diversity of the United States I think it would be almost impossible to perform violent acts on all the people in an interethnic marriage. My heart went out to the children effected by this, they did not choose for this to occur in their family, especially from people they thought they could trust. It is not even imaginable to me to read in My Parents Bedroom the events that occurred because of the parent’s background differences. The children in this story were discriminated against and violated without any understanding of what was going