The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by Amiyah Burke

Prologue Hook

burkeami — 2024-10-18 16:57:16 UTC

Flash-forward Hook: The author introduces the book with this flash-forward as the prologue, which gives background information on the main character, William, and his personality before the actual story begins. It describes what will happen at the end and how his goal was achieved.

Literary Techniques: Detailed description, Inner thoughts, Imagery, Simile, Realism

Simile and Realism:

“Looking at it now, it appeared exactly as it was - something out of a dream.” This describes how William's goal was so amazing to achieve, that he barely even believed it was true.

Details, Setting, and Onomatopoeia

burkeami — 2024-10-18 17:26:51 UTC

The descriptive writing on these pages sets the tone of how William feels and the setting where he and Khamba are. The detail of how William built the bird trap, what materials he used from his surroundings, and how patiently they both waited for the prey to come, gives that depth the reader wants. It creates the atmosphere and also shows the dedication, resilience, and caring nature of William because, despite his starving situation, he still created this and considered the feelings of his dog. In fact, in the pages prior, Wiliam expresses how the past few nights he's only been able to give Khamba small handfuls. He feels extremely bad for eating in front of him and seeing him standing there hungry "was like a hammer in my stomach."

Personification, Metaphor, and Simile

burkeami — 2024-10-18 17:31:52 UTC

The sentence, "Now the sweet, lingering memory of it soured into poison on my tongue," uses personification to enhance the aspect of how guilty William feels for eating the stolen gum. William thought the boys were being generous because of his clear state of hunger, so he didn't think twice about where the gum came from or whose it was, especially since he loved the taste. Now, after talking to the original owner and hearing the threat he made to the thieves and whoever ate it, Willliam felt a hole in himself, thinking he would have terrible karma. Nothing would've happened to him because he's just a small hungry kid, but this event reveals William's personality since childhood.

The metaphors, "anything to rid my body of the curse," and "I’d eaten his juju and now his darkness owned me," compare the eaten gum to negative spiritual features in order to put an emphasis on how William truly felt he was doomed because of this misconduct. To the readers, it wouldn't be a huge occurrence or considered a crime, but this shows more of William's morally good character.

The simile, "as if a dark cloud had passed over the sun," illustrates how the setting takes apart in Willam's belief too. Even though the clouds or sky most likely did not change, in William's mind it did because he believes he now has a curse.

This passage also digs deeper into William's spiritual beliefs because he expresses how the witches would come for him and take his soul, all because he ate the stolen gum that had brought on this curse. Many would look at William like he was crazy, but these were real things he believed as a child. Even when he told his dad about the incident, he tried to hide his smile and made slight jokes about it, but didn't shut down his son's beliefs.

Inner Thoughts and Questions + Dialogue

burkeami — 2024-10-22 14:07:18 UTC

William's curiosity is shown through all the questions he asks the people he encounters in the village. He questions them about these inventions, wondering how they work and operate. This push and pressure would lead us to think about the items around us in more depth, but the people in the memoir show no interest and say, "Who cares?"

It's interesting to see because even in the world today, we use many products without ever truly questioning the science and engineering behind how they actually work. Only those who are interested in that scientific field actually seem to question what vehicles get into and what chemicals we might be putting on our faces.

William's strong interest in the mechanics of cars, despite not fully grasping that it is considered science, gives further detail into his inquiry and curious personality.

External Conflict through Dialogue and Inner Thoughts (continued)

burkeami — 2024-10-28 17:14:39 UTC

These pages show how William is still dealing with this person vs. society conflict even though time has gone by and it's been many chapters. It seems to be a recurring event with William where people constantly doubt his abilities and show their lack of belief in him to follow through with achieving his goals.

William is renowned because of his strong interest in engineering, which led him to become a leading young mechanic for the town, but it's sort of ironic in a way because the people trust him enough to go to him for help with fixing something. However, they don't believe in his scientific experiments and plans to succeed in getting electricity. They call him a "madman" with "garbage" and laugh in his face, not knowing that this "lazy boy" will be the one to bring electricity and hope to the village.

External Conflict through Dialogue and Inner Thoughts

burkeami — 2024-10-28 17:14:52 UTC

This passage highlights William's main external conflict which is person vs. society. He deals with many people trying to discourage him and take away this burning flame, but he doesn't let that stop his passion.

It's important to note how William always responds to this adversity. Someone might think that these constant demoralizing words would bring him down and make him lose interest in pursuing his dreams. However, it seems that he gets more stronger and determined after each occurrence. In this scene specifically, a stuck-up kid is picking on him for not getting good grades and getting into the prestigious boarding schools in the area, unlike him. Instead of submitting to this intimidation, William tells him that he'll pass his JCE exam and then get into the great school. Then, to emphasize this, he includes his inner thoughts and in these words, it proves how truly persevered and focused he is on achieving goals.

Part Resolution

burkeami — 2024-10-30 17:11:43 UTC

This dialogue shows William's external conflict of adversity and how there has been progress toward resolution. After he was able to build the first working windmill, the whole village was grateful and in awe of his knowledge and intelligence. As shown in the prior chapters, almost everyone, other than William's close friends who helped a ton with getting the supplies, doubted his abilities and didn't believe he would create power. So, this scene gives a sneak peek at how amazed everyone will be when the full-on invention is made.

This also shows the plethora of difficulties William had because even his mom said that everyone was dumbfounded and proven wrong. Plus, how even she was worried about him and the structures he worked on every day.

This perseverance and unwillingness to back down from William makes most readers not only root for his success but also feel bad for him because he doesn't deserve this discouragement as a young aspiring kid.