The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind

Dense Question:

Text: Why does William switch from relying on magic and tradition to believing so strongly in what science can accomplish?

Other Lit/World: How can William’s experience be compared to that of Equality in Anthem?

Reader: Describe a time when you have done something that no one else around you has thought to do.

When William was young his family and village taught him tradition, just as every kid had been taught that grew up in Malawi. Williams lust for an educational triggers him to go to the library and start teaching himself, and he realizes that there is life outside of his African village. When he discovers the Electricity book he is amazed and begins to wonder how the concepts of electricity and producing electricity could help everyone in his community. I believe that William leaves his beliefs in magic and tradition because of his curiosity in what he could create using this new magic.

Much like William, Equality grows up in a society that teaches everyone to believe in the same thing. In Equality’s case, society took away everyone’s individualism so that no one would discover something that would make them think independently. Like William was taught about magic, Equality was taught that if something wasn’t for the group than it wasn’t right. Equality’s curiosity drove him to break the law and think on his own by finding the tunnel and creating the light from the unmentionable times. This curiosity eventually leads equality to become a dissenter of his society.

                Although this is not life changing or on the same level as William or Equality, one time my dad and I were trying to move a word saw to Wilmington for one of his friends from Raleigh. His friend didn’t tell him that the saw weighed a lot. We couldn’t lift the saw and its stand into the truck to move it. After spending thirty minutes trying to figure out what we were going to do, I came up with a great idea. I went into his friend’s garage and pulled out some old sheets of ply wood. With the wood I created a ramp to roll the saw up into the back of the truck. My idea actually worked out pretty well, so although I didn’t create light or a village powering windmill I did lead the way with a bright idea.