The Dark Child

Summary: The book starts off in a very mellow with of introducing its main character, Camara Laye. Laye is challenged right off the bat with a very superstitious background and environment. The black snake is introduced early on in the book. The black snake represents the future and leadership for one of the “chosen” ones. The future maybe told through this black snake. It is through the snake and the conversation where Laye is told that his father is scared that Layes education will cause Laye to leave the family. This takes a turn on Layes heart. Later, Layes father is given the task as an excellent gold smith to craft some gold. However, it is clearly described that the process to craft the delicate jewelry is extremely harmful to the health. It was a custom or a ritual for people to crowd around and watch this process. A “go-between” is called upon to glorify that specific persons job, in this case it was Layes dad, or better known as the gold smith. In a way this inspires Laye. As he watched his father, he saw the glorifying praises but also it was making life choices a lot more difficult.
Laye visits his grandma’s farm. Here he plays with other children of his age. He explains how he isn’t able to freely run around because of his “city boy” clothing and how he does not want to ruin them. Also, he says they (the kids from the grandmothers area of residence) are much more stronger and he believes its due to the area and environment he lives in. He also mentions his uncle who is an adventurer but cannot see his family often due to this. This brings Laye back to thought of how his father tells him he is scared to lose him due to education- this deeply saddens Laye. Laye, also talks about how superstitious the people are at this time of harvesting crops and rice season. Laye talks about how in these seasons when he is working and how intrigued he is by nature. He wants to become closer to his fellow workers but his grandmother has warned him not too.