The Dark Child by Camara Laye Book Analysis

The dark child is a novel written by an African writer Camara Laye. This novel tells us the story of Lay’s and the story of his childhood and how his culture and family shaped his education, values, and his ultimately. Furthermore, the dark child is known as Camara Laye. Laye was born in Kourassa, French Guinea. He had a big family, and he was the eldest son of 12 children fathered by Camara Komady known as the leading blacksmith in the region. His family was very big. His household consisted of a polygamous compound and his father had multiple wives. The story of this young man is magnificent, and it has a great meaning behind it and how it relates to the world. However, this essay will discuss three major events that happened in Laye’s life and how they relate to the world, and what are the differences between them. 

The first event is the appearance of the dark snake and how Laye’s father valued the snake, how the snake became a huge part of the family’s faith, and how that differs from other people’s values and beliefs.  Laye was raised knowing that snakes are harmful, and they should be killed. However, one day he saw a black snake moving towards his dad’s hut. He then ran and started calling for his mom so that she can kill the snake-like she always does. His mom looks at Laye’s eyes and told him not to kill that snake because that snake is the guided spirit of Laye’s father. Laye’s mother then explained to him that the black snake is the spirit animal of their people and will guide laye’s father, giving him wisdom. The snake used to visit the father every day and guide the father on what is going to happen in the future. Furthermore, Laye’s father truly and deeply believed in that snake and made him become a huge part of his faith. However, I feel that a lot of people in this world have something that they value a lot, something that guides them and play a big role in their faith and life. For example, in India a lot of people worship cows as God, they believe that cows are the symbol of life, wealth, health, and prosperity. Cows are a symbol of people’s faith in God, and it is considered a sin to slaughter a cow, and that’s why we see a lot of people in India as a vegetarian. In India people also value and worship elephants, and they think that elephants bring them strength and wisdom. Indians also have an elephant God that has a human body but has an elephant head instead. I’ve been to India many times and I always see a lot of cows in the street, some are blocking the street, and no one does anything and no one tries to move them. They value these cows a lot and they feel that if they tried to move them it is a sign of disrespect. First time I saw that I was very amazed but also very impressed. I loved the way people valued these cows and how strong they were to hold on to their believes and faith.  However, it is true that in every culture there is such an animal that people value and respect a lot. An animal that people are guided by strength their faith and believes. 

The second event is family. Layes in his book explains the love of family. He explains how his family used to eat all together and how much love and care he received from his grandmother. At his time family bond was very strong, family time was very important, and no matter how busy they were, there was always time for family. However, when we compare his older generation to this new world generation, we see a lot of changes that have been made. These days people are so busy with work and school. They tend to eat alone a lot because of how busy they are. We don’t see a lot of family gatherings like before. A lot of teenagers now can’t wait for the chance to grow up and just move from their parents’ house. Things are getting very expensive and thus that makes people want to work even more so that they can afford to pay for rent and food. They tend to sacrifice a lot of family time and replace it with long working hours so that they can afford to eat and live a good life. Another example that proves that family bond is fading year by year is the massive number of wars going on in the world right now. Because of war people had to leave their homes, family, and friends behind and travel to a safer place. Those people used to have a strong family bond and now everyone is in a different place. Everyone is far away from each other, and those people can only be reached by phone and only can be seen through video chat. It is heartbreaking to see family say goodbye to each other and that’s what happen to laye’s when he left his town and traveled to France. Laye’s mother was fallen apart when she had to say goodbye to her son because she knew that once he travels far away it is hard for her to see him again and be close to him like she always used to be.  However, In the older generations, there were not a lot of wars going on. Things were cheap, people did not have to work very long hours and people spent time with family more than we do in this newer generation. 

The third event is Check’s death. Check was Laye’s friend since primary school. They became better friends when Laye leaves to go to school in Conakry. They used to play a lot together and stay out for days. They used to sing and play the banjo with a group of their friends. They had a lot of crazy experiences together. Moreover, days went by and Laye’s started to notice that Check is starting to become weaker and weaker every day and that he lost a lot of weight.  Days passes by and Check ended passing away from how ill he was. In his village tradition, it is forbidden to say the name of the deceased person, but Laye’s kept saying his friend’s name repeatedly. Laye’s was very sad and yet very depressed. Check’s death has made him grow up. He did not have any other option but to grow up. This loss made him change a lot and made him transform from an innocent to a more experienced person. However, all humans relate to that. All of us had someone really close to us that we were too busy enjoying our time with and their absence and loss made us grow up and made it stronger than before. That’s just how life is in order to grow and learn we must run through tough situations like that. 

In conclusion, there were a lot of interesting events that happened In Laye’s life but above are the three major events that I feel I personally can relate to and it also relates to a lot of other people. This book taught me the love of family and made me think of how this new world made our bond with family to be a little bit weaker than it used to before. It made me realize that sometimes in order for us to grow in life we need to lose someone or something we love the most just like Laye’s lost his best friend. This book was one of the best books I’ve ever read and I will continue recommending it to people.