A Long Walk to Water Chapters 1–2 Summary & Analysis

Summary: Chapter 1, Nya: Southern Sudan, 2008

Eleven-year-old Nya sets out carrying a large plastic container filled with air. Noon is hours away, yet the air already bakes from the hot sun. If she walks without stopping, it will take half the morning. Getting there is easy.

Summary: Chapter 1, Salva: Southern Sudan, 1985

Eleven-year-old Salva sits in the classroom, stealing glances through the window at the road home. The teacher continues the Arabic lesson. Arabic is the official language of Sudan, but at home, Salva’s family speaks the language of their tribe, the Dinka. Salva’s two older brothers, Ariik and Ring also go to school. Akit and Agnath, his sisters, stay home. Kuol, his younger brother, is not yet old enough for school. When the dry season comes, school will end and Salva’s family will leave the village.

Today Salva daydreams. He knows how lucky he is to be in school, yet he would rather be with his brothers, herding their father’s cattle to graze near the water holes. They would play along the way, making cows out of clay, or practicing with their bows and arrows. Perhaps they would kill a small animal, roast it over a fire, and savor the few bits. He thinks about how when he gets home, his mother will be waiting for him, wearing her bright orange headscarf, holding a bowl of fresh milk for him.

Suddenly, Salva hears gunshots. The two-year long religious war between rebels from the south and the government has reached Salva’s village. Outside, men, women, and children are running. Salva’s teacher yells for the students to run, and to not go back to their village. Salva tries to scream that he wants to go home, but no words come. He runs into the bush, leaving home behind.

Summary: Chapter 2, Nya: Southern Sudan, 2008

Nya sits down on the ground with the container beside her. Thorns from plants that line the path cover the ground. She examines her heel. Half of a large thorn has embedded itself there. She tries to remove it with her fingers, and then finds another thorn that she uses as a tool to dig out the one lodged in her foot. Nya grimaces at the pain.

Summary: Chapter 2, Salva: Southern Sudan, 1985

Salva hears a loud boom and sees flames and smoke behind him. He runs for hours, not knowing where he is going, where his family is, and if they will see him again. He slows to walk alongside others who are fleeing.

At nightfall, the people stop and separate into groups by village. Salva joins people from Loun-Ariik, his village. A few faces look familiar, but his family is not there.

The next day, the walking continues. Gun-toting rebels surround the villagers. Salva wonders what will happen to them, and where his family is.

As evening approaches, they arrive at the rebel camp. The soldiers separate the villagers into two groups—one of men, the other of women, children, and the elderly. Salva is unsure of which group to join. He is Salva Mawien Dut Ariik, of an important family. Surely he can act like a man, and set a good example for Kuol. He moves to join the men, but a soldier stops him, and points him to the women and children. Salva thinks of seeing his family again and swallows his terror. The soldier laughs and tells Salva not to be in such a hurry to grow up.

In the morning, not everyone wants to go with the rebels, but no one dares protest after a soldier beats a man for resisting.

At nightfall, Salva’s group finds a barn to sleep in. He sleeps restlessly with the uncertainty of where he is going and whether he will see his family again. When he awakens in the morning, everyone is gone. Salva is alone.

Analysis: Chapters 1–2

Park uses a narrative structure in A Long Walk to Water that weaves two parallel stories together throughout the book’s chapters. A third-person omniscient narrator introduces the reader first to Nya and then to Salva. The structure itself, a back and forth between the two stories, suggests a connection between these two main characters, though the reader has, at this point, few clues as to what this connection might be. We know that Nya and Salva are both eleven years old and that they are both in Southern Sudan. It is clear that it is hot and dry where Nya lives and that Salva’s family leaves their village during the dry season, which suggests a nomadic existence determined by access to water. However, Salva’s story begins twenty-three years before Nya’s.

The brevity with which Park begins Nya’s story in the first two chapters contrasts with the more detailed description of Salva. What the reader initially learns about Nya is limited to short sentences that reveal the most basic of facts. Her journey involves a certain amount of suffering and physical pain, though at this point, it is unclear where she is going, or if this is a journey she makes every day. She walks alone, so little is known about her family or friends, though her family has sent her out with an empty container for a specific purpose. Park introduces us to Salva, on the other hand, with more detail, including information about his country (Sudan), his tribe (Dinka), and his family. He and his brothers know they are fortunate to attend school, and though they share responsibility for herding their family’s cattle to water, their days seem somewhat carefreely spent in a bucolic setting, in stark contrast to Nya’s day. Salva’s daydreaming suggests the warmth and closeness he feels to his family. Salva’s sisters do not attend school but rather stay home to attend to domestic duties, and this points to differences in gender roles in Sudanese society.

Both Nya and Salva’s suffering and struggle to survive is brought about by circumstances that are beyond their control. The reader can guess that the pain Nya endures, from thirst to thorns, is due in large part to the harshness of the natural environment in which she lives. She is only a child, but she must rely on herself to deal with her pain. Salva’s suffering, on the other hand, is brought about by human violence. The raging Sudanese Civil War that has now reached his village shatters his childhood innocence and launches him into an experience of gutsy survival vastly different from the life he daydreams about. In order to survive, he must flee everything he has ever known. While Salva is determined to be brave and “act like a man” as his father has always encouraged him, the rebel soldier tells him not to grow up too fast and forces Salva to join the group of women and children. Ironically, the very adults who one might think would protect Salva, abandon him. When he awakens to an empty barn, he must face a cruel reality: he will have to depend on himself for his own survival and “act like a man.”

Next section Chapters 3–4