The book is well titled God’s
Bits of Wood; in the beginning of the book we learned that God’s Bits of
Wood are the children. A common phrase has always been, ‘Children are the
future’, and it seems quite wise to have a book about change have a title
having to do with children. Think of it this way, when the strike is going on,
the Senegalese men (women too) are the front runners and the children are in
the background. But the change that the men and woman are working for is for
the children. In this chapter we finally get to see how the children are
impacted by the strike. First they enjoyed the freedom because their parents
were overwhelmed; they played in the trees, collected snakes, and talked about
movies. But, as the mom begins to notice she casually recommends stealing the
chickens. This is where the children take on more responsibility to help out
the society. I always enjoy trying to connect things back into my life because
then it became personable. The lack of parental guidance reminds me when my
parents are just so overwhelmed with what to do, so as long as I didn’t ask for
anything I could pretty much roam free. Eventually they realized that I could
be helpful so they causally recommended that I try to help out. This sense of responsibility
is important for it helps create the next generation of ‘God’s bits of wood’.
I also recognized this for the same reasons. I began to think what my parents would think if i dissapeared all during the day with a gang of apprentices. Though then I realized that most weekends this is exactly what I do with my friends rather than helping. It was interesting making these connections.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a really interesting blog post. In reading the novel, I felt the repeated phrase "children are the future" refered largely to the fear amongst the Senegalese people that their culture will be lost to that of the French people, and the desire fo the Senegalese people to have the children carry out the Senegalese culture for future generations. It is interesting that we now see the children playing a rule in the strike, and taking part in controling the future of their society.
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