The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind
In William Kamkwamba’s The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, the setting, point of view, and irony demonstrate the theme that persistence is necessary for reaching goals and having a successful life by showing the consequences of giving in to adversity.
William lives on a farm in the village of Masitala in Malawi. Life for him, his family, and the villagers is not easy because they have to deal with hunger, drought, deforestation, and many other hardships. In addition, there are frequent power outages throughout the country. ”In Malawi and most parts of Africa that don’t have electricity for television, the radio is our only connection to the world outside the village.”(67) William’s family also struggles to pay his school tuition. Even though William did not have the best tools or education to build the windmill, he kept trying until he succeeded. The only thing William has to work off of his the library book because it has the diagrams that he looks off of. The government offers electricity but only some people in Malawi are able afford it. Everyone in Malawi goes to bed at seven because of sundown. William wants to build the windmill so he can stay up and study instead of going to bed with the rest of Malawi. Ten o’ clock is when the government does power cuts so William only gets 3 more hours to study. “Like most people, my family used kerosene lamps to find our way at night. These lamps were nothing more than a Nido powdered milk can with a cloth wick, filled with fuel and bent closed at the top.” (81)
By using the first person point of view, William describes his life and the numerous obstacles he has to overcome to build the windmill. Most people in his situation would have given up. “But most of the time we had no money so we spent our afternoons in hunger and dreams.”(21)William describes how difficult it is for him to build the windmill throughout the book. He makes it seem like he’s talking directly to his readers. “My first and only experience with magic
William lives on a farm in the village of Masitala in Malawi. Life for him, his family, and the villagers is not easy because they have to deal with hunger, drought, deforestation, and many other hardships. In addition, there are frequent power outages throughout the country. ”In Malawi and most parts of Africa that don’t have electricity for television, the radio is our only connection to the world outside the village.”(67) William’s family also struggles to pay his school tuition. Even though William did not have the best tools or education to build the windmill, he kept trying until he succeeded. The only thing William has to work off of his the library book because it has the diagrams that he looks off of. The government offers electricity but only some people in Malawi are able afford it. Everyone in Malawi goes to bed at seven because of sundown. William wants to build the windmill so he can stay up and study instead of going to bed with the rest of Malawi. Ten o’ clock is when the government does power cuts so William only gets 3 more hours to study. “Like most people, my family used kerosene lamps to find our way at night. These lamps were nothing more than a Nido powdered milk can with a cloth wick, filled with fuel and bent closed at the top.” (81)
By using the first person point of view, William describes his life and the numerous obstacles he has to overcome to build the windmill. Most people in his situation would have given up. “But most of the time we had no money so we spent our afternoons in hunger and dreams.”(21)William describes how difficult it is for him to build the windmill throughout the book. He makes it seem like he’s talking directly to his readers. “My first and only experience with magic