Graffiti Wall Explanation

For my graffiti wall I chose to write seven major words that encompassed the themes we talked about during this class.  Surrounding the words were the titles of the books and some other small theme words that correlated to the seven chosen words.  My seven main words are:  struggle, adventure, family, innocence, companionship, survival and responsibility.
STRUGGLE= I chose struggle because in Sold, Crossing the Wire, Revolution is Not a Dinner Party, and A Long Way Gone there was struggle.  Struggle had a different meaning in each book but overall, each of the main characters in the books all had to struggle through some sort of challenge that was thrown at them.  Everyone all around the world suffers through struggles on a daily basis.  Some people struggle through living each day, where some struggle to be motivated to do things.  Overall, struggle is a huge part of culture for everyone.
ADVENTURE= In all of the books we read this term each character had some sort of adventure.  Some characters traveled, some were faced with mental obstacles that made them adventure through maturity, and some had to adventure because they were forced into it.  Traveling is such a blessing.  When traveling because it's to save your skin, it may not seem like a blessing, but to just travel to see the world is 100% a blessing.  It's something we take advantage of and sometimes under-appreciate.  Everyone needs to go somewhere and experience someone else's culture and be able to see the world through their own eyes and not through a magazine or the internet.
FAMILY= Once again, this theme was found in all of the books.  The main character either was losing family, doing something for family, or only had family.  Family is what shapes a person.  People have to overcome challenges and that does shape them, but family whether blood-related or just "adopted"  is what can hold or break a person apart.  All of the characters in the book were affected by their family in some way, and the same is true for all of us.
INNOCENCE= With all of the characters in this book being under 16 years old there was a sense of innocence that I felt while reading these books.  All of the characters were young and naive and didn't fully grasp what obstacles were in front of them until they were knee-deep in the problem.  It's reality, kids are involved in worldly issues, and they don't know the extent of what's going on, and all they see is pain and they don't understand it, it's heartbreaking, but it's reality.
COMPANIONSHIP= I really felt this theme in Sold, Crossing the Wire, and A Long Way Gone.  In all of these books the main character formed relationships with other people and it helped them get through what they were struggling with.  This theme makes it apparent that human beings need to be social, and they need help.  Nobody is perfect, and we need people to be able to fall back on, other than family.  The friendships in these books were beautiful and so innocent, and it was the bigger issues in the world that tore the friendships apart.
SURVIVAL= I felt this theme in all of the books except Kampung Boy and that might be just because Kampung Boy didn't have a heavy issue in the book and the boy really didn't have to overcome much of an obstacle until the end of the book.  In all of the other books obstacles were apparent in the beginning and lasted until the end of the book.
RESPONSIBILITY= This theme was in all of the books, and is such a huge obstacle that every person around the world must overcome.  What makes this theme hard is that all of the characters were so young and had to become responsible or they would lose their life or respect.  That's a huge weight on such a young person. I thought middle school was tough, but to think about being that age and being sold into sex slavery in order for my family to get some money, I can't imagine having to overcome that burden.  Or being 12 years old and seeing gory, bloody war all around me and being okay mentally as an adult.  That's really rough.

All of these themes are apparent in the books and the topics we discussed.  They are what I thought of while reading each of these books and what stuck out the most when reviewing my feelings and thoughts on these books/discussions.  Kids are so amazing and to think that so many around the world have stories similar to these books absolutely breaks my heart, but it's good to be informed and to remember these themes.