Multiple Factors That Helped Salva Survive 

"A Long Walk to Water" was made by the author, "Linda Sue Parker". It talks about the story of a young boy named,"Salva". He is in the middle of a war crisis and is unfortunately separated from his parents. Now it is his job to find them and rejoin with his loved ones. Along the way, he meets groups of people from different tribes and countries that understand what he's going through. In my opinion, the three main factors are "Hope", "Companions", and "Reputation". For this paper, I'm going to touch on these factors that helped Salva survive on his journey and give evidence as to why they are the correct ones.

The first factor that I chose is "Hope", and let me explain why. Throughout Salva's journey, the whole point of it was to find his parents. He hopes or believes that at the end of this adventure he will be able to rejoin them. Besides that, he's always asking himself, "Where is my family? When will I see them again". The kid literally scans his group every day to see if someone from his heritage is there. When Salva found his uncle you know what his first thought was? "He must know where my family is!". However, Uncle Jewiir doesn't know anything of the sort. What I'm trying to say is that Salva doesn't let a day go by without asking himself the same question or "hoping" that his "family" will find him. 

My second factor is "Companions" and this mainly directs towards Marial and "Uncle Jewiir". When Salva first met Marial it was due to stepping on his foot. Thankfully, that didn't stop them from becoming great friends! And just to let you know, "companions" doesn't just mean friends. His uncle too was another companion that supported Salva on the journey. Once Marial was eaten by a lion the other night, Salva knew that he had to get to Ethiopia, for his sake, knowing that Marial would want him to get there safely as well. Without the support of Uncle and Marial Salva would be lonely and have no one to talk to. This would lead to loneliness, depression, and much more. The kid was lucky to have those two with him.

This final factor is his reputation or heritage. Because Salva was Dinka he was allowed to join the group of people passing by the old woman's house. In the text, it says, "The man shrugged. 'He is Dinka', he said and began walking again". If it wasn't for his Dinka heritage Salva probably would be having to walk by himself to the refugee camps. And even worse, he would've never found his uncle or Marial! If that happened Salva would be in a much more dangerous place trying to pass through the desert. 

Now its time for a counterargument. Now some people may say that my factors don't make sense and I can agree with them a little bit. Sure, reputation or heritage doesn't seem to play a big part in the story or companions may seem like hope. But, "reputation" does play a very big part in Salva's journey. If "reputation" is so incorrect than why does the group passing by only let him join due to him being Dinka. And if "Hope" is so similar to "Companions" then explain why the definition of "hope" is "a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen" and "companion" means "a person or animal with whom one spends a lot of time or with whom one travels"?

Overall, it may be said that "Hope", "Companions", and "Reputation" are the three main factors that help Salva survive on his journey to find his parents. "Hope" is a factor that helped Salva survive because without believing he'd find his parents the whole journey wouldn't make sense. "Companions" was another factor because without the company of Uncle or Marial Salva's trip to the Ethiopian refugee camps would be a lot harder. And "Reputation" is important because without the group passing by knowing he was Dinka they'd leave him causing Salva to possibly never find Uncle or Marial in the first place.  These are the factors that I think helped Salva survive. What do you think about these three factors and do you agree?