Sunday, March 2, 2008

Response Question: What IS the What? (1-137)

In Chapter 6, Valentino's father tells the story about "the What" and how that affected his tribe's history. Based on the story, what do YOU think "the What" could be? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Back up your argument with support from the book.
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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Based on the story, I believe that the "What " is a bad thing. I think the "what" is the desert.In the book the "what" was given to tha Arabs. And today the Arabs live in the desert with no cattle and kind of have to rely on the Dinkas. That is why in the story the Arabs steal the Dinka's cattle because unlike the Dinkas the Arabs do not nave the cattle. They have the what, the desert.

March 4, 2008 at 10:07 AM
Anonymous said...

I belive in the story the "What" is everythng and anything bad that can and has happened. From the time whem Valentinos's dad told the story to the Arabs, he refered back to the begining of time when God was creating the Earth. Deng said God offered two choices, one was the cattle and the other the "what". He said it was a test and the monyjang choice correctly. Then the story goes on to say that because they have choisen correctly, god has given them the gift to prosper. But over time greed and evny became stronger among men and thats when the "what" became evident among men. The "what simbolized war, famine, jealousy, creed. That is why the Arabs took the cattle from the Dinkas because they didn't have as much. That is why there is a war among them because of land, power, and guns. All the troubles that are going on in Southern Sudan is all the "what" Deng was telling about. People made bad choices and all the evil in the world was let out.

March 4, 2008 at 5:23 PM
Justine said...

Why do you think Valentino's father edits the story of What is the What when he shares it with Sadiq and the other Arab traders?

March 6, 2008 at 5:25 AM
Anonymous said...

I belive that Achak (Valentino) Father altered the story of the what is what because he did not want to insult the Arabics. If he did it what has caused conflict between them business wise and society wise for example if he were to tell the side witch said the foolish Arabics chose the What in trying to be greedy it could have conflict between all Ar Arabics and Dinkas.As far as the what goes i belive also it was a negative thing and it was just a test by god and thats how the arabics ended up with the desert.

March 6, 2008 at 10:43 AM
Anonymous said...

I believe that the "What" in the story is a very bad thing.I think the what is the war and desert.I also think it's all the bad that happened and all the bad that is going to happen. I think the "what" was given to the Arabs because the Dinkas choose the cattle and god said that was a wise decision to make because the "what" is unknown and they choose what was right in front of their faces.If the decision was left to the Arabs I think they would of chosen the "What". The Arabs stole the Dinkas cattle because they were left with the "What".

March 8, 2008 at 1:21 PM
Anonymous said...

I believe the what is NOTHING. I believe that the Dinka's chose the cattle, and the Arabs started with NOTHING, based on the story of course. I think that the what symbolizes nothing.It doesn't have to be an object. It doesn't have to be something intangible. But the only thing it makes sense to be (to me), is nothing.

December 8, 2008 at 7:59 PM

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