"They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky": Very Different People

I thought before I even started reading that the book would be an adventure, but that wasn't the case as I opened to the first page. At first it introduces the first brother out of the three that the story is being told by. Now another thing that I thought was that it was going to be more of a story being told nameing all three boys, but once again that wasn't the case either. The book was written off each brothers' opinion. I figured that I was going to need to pay close attention to each boy and learn each of them as individuals and not as "Three brothers."

Each brother told their story of when they were younger children and each of them had different experiences. I noticed that the title of the chapter was also the main point of the story that each boy told.

"The Blade Is Blunt." The story of Benson going throught the worst pain that he has ever felt. The pain that was done to him in his village by his own father and other men from the village. At first he didn't understand why. He didn't understand why he was being held down by five men. Then suddenly he feels the "Blade" cutting through his forskin. Benson didn't know if he was going to survive that night and even when he did he was more realieved that it was over then actually what the meaning was for doing this. Benson: "I was happy to have passed the uncircumcised stage, but it wasn't worth the pain I went through." (pg. 9).

"Dinkaland." Alepho the third brother was totally oposite of his brother Benson. While Benson was quiet and did not ask much out of people Alepho found joy in complaining. He would complain about work, he would complain about food and water, he even complained about his fellow siblings. He would constantly say: "Where is my soup" even though he already ate his soup. (pg 11 and 12). Alepho also took noticed about the tradition that was held by his elders such as the eating of the elephant meat. "... it's a Dinka tradition that when you eat the meat of the elephant, everyone must put that first peice in their mouth together at once." (pg. 14).

"Age-Mates." Last but not least there was Benjamin who even though he was the youngest he was braver then his two brothers. He would even be brave when inside he was not. "My voice wanted to tremble but I made it strong." (pg. 19). He was even willing to put in the work when it came to being brave. "My friends and I took up our branches and jumped to our feet. We looked at each other with eyes like full moons on a dark night." (pg. 21)

They were all brothers but each held a different characteristic about themselves that made them very different people.