"Where are your people?’’
Soon after Salva is abandoned by his own people, he meets an old lady who agrees to take care of him for a short period of time. The first thing she wants to find about him is which tribe he is a member of, and after she realizes that they are both members of the same tribe, she agrees to take care of him. This proves that in this particular society, family and tribe are closely connected. The tribe becomes like family when a person has no one else and the people from the same tribe feel a moral obligation to take care of their own, even when it is not in their best interest.
"Your family?(…) Me, too.’’
Marial is the young boy with whom Salva meets on the journey to Ethiopia. The two quickly become friends when they both realize that they are alone, the only people who do not have any type of family. By only asking about his family, Marial realizes quickly that they were both the same. This brings the boys together and makes them believe that they can trust one another. When Marial disappears in the middle of the night, Salva feels despair, almost as if he had lost a dear family member.
“If you give them your water, you will not have enough for yourself!’’
When Salva’s group discovers the second group in the middle of the desert, some of the people from the first group try to help them by giving them water and food. Some men from the first group begin yelling at the people trying to share their food and water with complete strangers, claiming that they do not have enough for themselves. However, some still insist on sharing the little they have if that means saving another person’s life. This incident is important because it shows the ways humans tend to react when faced with tough decisions. Some people, like the man who uttered the quote from above, chose to focus only on their own salvation and decide to ignore everyone around them. Other people chose to put the others first, even if that means reducing their own risk of surviving. The important thing to note here is that while we may be quick to judge the first category of people, the author does not do this, admitting that in certain situations, tough decisions must be made.
And with each sip, he remembered his family passing the bottles from hand to hand, laughing at the tickly bubbles, sharing and laughing together.
This is a very Proustian moment: as Salva takes a sip of the soda, he is transported back to his family. Taste and smell are powerful senses and are connected to memories, so it is not surprising that the sip and smell of the soda make Salva's mind think of the time in which he shared this same drink with them. This happens a few times in the text, such as in the beginning when Salva connects thinking of his friends to the time when they killed and ate an animal: he becomes hungry, thinks of milk, and then thinks of his mother.
Glancing at her younger sister, Nya did not say what she was thinking: that Akeer, who was only five years old, was too small and walked too slowly.
"She needs to learn," her mother said.
In this quote, readers learn several things. The first is that going and fetching water—the long, boring, hot trek—is the job of women and girls. This is what Nya does, this is what Akeer will do. Akeer will not get to opt out; neither girl goes to school. The other important thing here is that survival is of the utmost importance. It does not matter how long or boring or hot the trek is, or how young Akeer is; water must be had or people will die. Nya and Salva both operate in situations that are hard, tedious, and boring, but they must carry on because their lives and the lives of the people around them are at stake.
