"What is the What", the end.

Valentino spends the book telling stories he remembers about his life. It seems that there are like two worlds, his present and his past. What is happening in his present affects the tone of how he tells his past for the first part of the book, but slowly he accepts the painful memories in his life and he ends with a reflective tone. The robbery at the beginning made him upset, so he begins telling stories of the times he experienced people treating him poorly. "I stand before Powder and my memory is searching for the time when I last felt this betrayed, when I last felt in the presence of evil so careless." (pg5) He is angry at the citizens of the United States and the way he is treated here so his tone becomes angry and annoyed ("I am tired of this country.."-pg7).  But soon, Michael comes and in an attempt to try and relate to Michael, he tells stories of his life as a young boy. This tone seems more compassionate. "At this moment, I am contemplating ways I might save you" (pg. 48). The tone changes so much because with every new person in his life, he has all of these memories that bring forth many different feelings. But right before Achor Achor arrives, there is a shift from the ever-changing tone. Valentino seems to have accepted that the Christian neighbors have not helped and he just tells them his life story, with a kind of peaceful tone. He seems to be slowly appreciating his past and the fortune he has now. He goes to the hospital and continues on with telling Julian his story. Although he is upset with Julian, he doesn't let it get in the way of his story. His memories let him reflect on the life he has now and the life he used to have. He appreciates the wonderful life he has now after remembering the amount of pain he has suffered through. "Each time I find myself giving up on this country, I have the persistent habit of realizing all that I have here and did not have in Africa." (pg. 351). He transforms from a storyteller who was altered by his past, to one that values the experiences he had. Towards the end of the book, he is checking his phone and his last voicemail is from a familiar friend. "The last message is from Moses. Moses of Marial Bai. Moses who was brought north as a slave, Moses who was branded and escaped and later trained to be a rebel. Moses who went to private school in Kenya and college in British Columbia and now lives in Seattle." (pg. 477). This causes him to reminisce about his experiences and how far he has come. Valentino has grown in strength because he has accepted the life he's had. Valentino falls back into a reflective, calm town, which guides the reader to the end of the book.

My favorite part of "What is the What" is when Valentino rides a bike for the first time. While the boys stagger through the desert, many have gone mad, many have died and all haven't eaten for days, a bunch of swirling lights appear in the distance. Dut is gone, so Kur tells the boys to run. Valentino runs in a random direction and ends up getting cut on  barbed wire. On the other side of the barbed wire, there is a man who offers him help. He brings Valentino into his shelter and gives him water and nuts and cleans his wound. Valentino notices the bicycle and the kind man teaches him how to ride it. "The round-bellied man sighed and called himself crazy. He rolled the bicycle out of his home and into the sun. The spokes shimmered, the frame shone. He showed me how to sit on the seat, and while I arranged myself upon it, he held the bike upright. It was the most astonishing bicycle ever seen in Sudan, and I was sitting on it luxurious black leather seat" (pg. 206). I love this part because it is almost like a dream or something that would only happen in a movie. The way Valentino describes it makes the experience sound so perfect at first I thought he was hallucinating. It was just this random kind man in the middle of nowhere. It gave me hope that Valentino was going to be okay and the kindness of this man in-between so many villagers refusing to help the lost boys was truly inspiring.