Reflection: The Red Pencil

Book Cover of The Red Pencil

The Red Pencil follows the life of 12-year-old Amira in Dafur. She lives with her parents and sister in an agricultural society.  She learns of the opportunity of learning in a school through her best friend who leaves to pursue her education and work opportunities for her family. starts her education journey with a stick and drawing in the sand. Right from the start of the book she is inquisitive about learning and attending school despite her parents and especially her mother being against it. Amira’s mother has traditional views of a woman’s place and views education as “chasing the wind”. Amira expresses how she thinks it must be difficult for her mother to breathe because she is so closed off from opposing ideas than that of her own.   

 

 

The book is told through the eyes of an older child, by not only the words and poetic style but also the illustrations throughout the story. The illustrations used are of pictures that strongly resemble what a child would draw. She approaches the problems she and her family faces in a childlike way and often attempts to block out what is scary. There is an innocence to Amira’s character that is logical and contrary from Persepolis where although Marji is a young child too at a point, the language used does not adequately reflect that. That was also the case for A Long Walk to Water, where both characters talk more adultlike than childlike.  

 

 

When Amira’s parents try to talk to her about the war and the danger of an extremist group, the Janjaweed she struggles to fully grasp the threat of it all. Her naivety and innocence are also demonstrated when there is a big sand storm, she wants to stay outside in the midst of it to find her sheep, Nali. This inability to identity danger is very childlike and would be something young readers could identify with.  I believe this book allows the reader to more easily identify with the character than the memoir, I Am Malala. The format of the book is an important factor to that, but more than that the character of Amira does not come across as superhuman like that of Malala. She has her moments of selfishness, naivety, anger and grief which are not as visible as in the memoir of I am Malala. Like Malala however, she has a very supportive and loving father who sees her worth as a female and was more in favour of her education than Amira’s mother.

 

 

When she loses her father and home, Amira is seen grappling with her loss by falling into a state of complete silence. Her silence is a coping mechanism and shows how deeply traumatized she is by everything that is happening in her young life. She starts drawing after receiving a red pencil from a teacher at the refugee camp and this seems to be therapeutic to her. A short while later she starts talking again after her red pencil is taken and she needs to reclaim it, since it holds so much value to her. She starts lessons with her father’s friend, Anwar and eventually starts yearning for an education with other children. Amira’s desire to attend school is so intense, that she takes action and leaves her family and heads off with hopes of finding the school her best friend went to at the beginning of the story. Anwar finds her however before she can get too far and takes her home. The book ends on a hopeful note, of Amira believing that her dreams are possible and that she is as free and happy as a sparrow. The last image is of her flying and although it is not clear as to whether she actually goes to school there is a compelling tone of hope that makes it seem as though anything possible for Amira.

Author: Hannah Brendell

Hannah Brendell is a UWC graduate from Windhoek, Namibia. She is currently pursing a major in International Relations and Economic Development at Agnes Scott College, in Atlanta Georgia. She aspires to be a leader of positive change in her home country and across the African continent.

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