Summary
William began to put everything together, but the community continued to doubt his project. Many members of his family were disgruntled at his lack of contribution to other aspects of family life, but Geoffrey and Gilbert continued to show up and help with the construction. At first, the voltage was too high, and nearly blew up the test radio. However, William figured out how to reduce the voltage enough to successfully power it.
Following the success of the windmill mechanism itself, William, Geoffrey, and Gilbert began to build the tower out of blue gum to raise the contraption to meet winds of high speeds. They did so with a pulley system, and it required teamwork from all three to hoist the turbine itself to its perch.
As William wired up the mechanism and attached it to the tower, he gained a growing audience from the community. Many still doubted the efficacy of his contraption, but once the wind picked up and the lightbulb at the base of the tower began to light, the people were impressed and in awe of the creation. Some were still confused as to its purpose, but with explanations from William, they became more and more impressed.
Later, William began to work on wiring the electricity to his room, but did not have the wires necessary to bring the power indoors. Luckily, his cousin Charity had a spool of wires from an odd job he took, and William bought them from him, enabling him to wire the electricity indoors. It was only a small bulb in his room, but it allowed him to stay up later at night, which was an exciting change for him.
Analysis
When William is assembling his contraption, he sees briefly the life he could have had if he had not been driven to make this windmill. When he collects bottlecaps to act as washers for the bolts, a drunkard asks him for a drink, appealing to him by saying, "I'm an orphan, you know" (195). This character is one that William was terrified of becoming, especially since he dropped out of school. However, William doesn't contemplate this man's presence any longer than he needs to—instead, he simply says, "sorry, I'm busy," and gets on with his work (195). This exchange demonstrates how William has transcended the worries of doing nothing, and is now occupied with one of the projects he started to keep busy.
Additionally, another part of this chapter harkens back to William's past, when he refers to the forest that the bubblegum man had supposedly cursed him in (see the first chapter). However, now he is returning with a new purpose in mind: instead of magic bringing him to the forest, it is now science. This purpose is "something greater and more real than any magic in the land," according to William (199). This line is one example of the way in which William's character has developed throughout the book, going from fearing and desiring magic to wanting something more concrete and turning to science, which has arguably gotten him much further than magic could.
William's final assembly of the windmill garners him much attention from his nearby community, and their attitudes are conveyed using dialogue from individual members of the crowd. For example, Kalino, one of the traders in the market, calls the creation a toy, to which William responds "stand back and watch" (202). William is at this point so confident in his creation that he can rebuke any of the taunts from other Malawians with ease, even those who might still call him crazy or pity his mother. Instead of getting defensive or trying to explain his creation, he allows the actions to speak for him instead, and when the windmill powers a lightbulb, the delight is complete and overwhelming.
