Sparknotes The Children Of The River

The Children of the River Susan Harris
In the book “Children of the River” we meet our main character Sandara, who is a young girl who lives in Cambodia. During her life there is a war going on, and her parents fearing for her life and her mother fearing the life of her sister, sends her to live with her “Younger Aunt” as she calls her, or Soka, along with her two sons Pon and Ravy and Sokas husband Naro. In this book there are many different times they show technology. it is shown once when Naro, in the beginning of the book is said to drive up on a motorcycle and helped his family onto a boat to a new land or in this case America. When they get to America there are Cars, Airplanes, Phones, TV and other different types of technology all in the book, Showing this book probably took place in the
1900’s-2000’s or at least that’s my guess.
They also show many types of culture in the book as in “Touching someone’s head is said to make them lose their soul”, This is probably a culture along with “Don’t step over people for in my country it’s like shoveling dirt on them” this is all part of the Cambodian culture. They also bow, place their hands on their forehead together (this was shown when Soka scolded Sundara for liking the American boy, she places her hands on her head and asked for mercy.) Another culture for Cambodia is for the parents to arrange a marriage for the daughters, this gets Sundara in a lot of trouble because she likes an American boy named Jonathan. She goes through most of this book with this love for him but she knows she can’t like him, when finally they find out Soka explodes. After losing Sokas baby to sea sickness trying to evade the war Sundara never forgives
herself and thinks that Soka doesn't either. After all this heartbreak Sundara is seeking to become a doctor and get an education so someday she can go back to Cambodia to help people, but she also wants to be able to love Jonathan the way americans can, she does love him but she can’t escape her Aunt's wishes. This makes her hide the fact of it try to get him to understand but he can’t and she gets in big trouble for it. This is usually because he doesn’t get her customs and just wants to like her. Through the book it’s like this and at the end she sees him to tell him that she found her baby sister, who along with the rest of her family and been missing since she was sent to live with her younger Aunt. I think this is a good book for people it really opens your eyes to what's really happening in the world like people in war zones forced to send their family to find a better place and leave them behind. Sometimes this is even dangerous for they have to travel to places sometimes by boat, maybe walking, some maybe get away with other people, but most of the time the trip is dangerous and sometimes leads to death, Although some people see it as the only way out.