The short story Fireweed, written by Skye Brannon in 2009, is a story about a young man named Baluta whose family was killed back in Liberia. I believe the story takes place around 1980-1990 (civil in Liberia) because we hear about the soldiers killing his family and his father also mentions a war coming.
The story takes place in America where Joel, which is the name he goes by in America, also lives. Baluta is a carpenter but is having a difficult time finding jobs.
He lives in the ghetto with his brother Jato and his sister-in-law Sama. They have all migrated from West Africa to America probably because of the war.
We can see in the text that Baluta and his brother are not very good at English because of the way Brannon writes. Brannon shows us that they pronounce the English sounds a little bit wrong by writing “d” instead of “th”.
Baluta is a kind and sensitive man. We know he is kind because he feels bad about taking the car so his brother and sister-in-law have to take the bus and we know he is sensitive because of his sister. It’s clear how much he misses her and how close they were. Even though he is trying to forget the things that happened in Liberia the memories still means a lot to him. He treasures them even though it’s sad memories.
Baluta was brought up in Africa. He lived with his family who are Mandinkas. It sounds like they were a strong family with a close relationship. They knew what to do and how to use the things they had. We always hear that Baluta and his sister were playing in the nature. We also know that he is poor because he has to take a cold shower. After his brother and sister-in-law had had theirs all the hot water had been used. The car he has is named Swiss Chevy by his brother because of the many holes in its body which is also a sign that they don’t have much money.
The story is written chronological but with a lot