The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind Essay
In the book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba, you learn the story of a young boys life in Africa and the hundreds of obstacles they have to face. William comes up with the idea to construct a windmill to help his family by powering his house and with the crops. Not only did he have to learn all about electricity and physics without schooling, he had to go through the whole village making fun of him with almost no supporters, along with trying to obtain the materials he needed to build it. But somehow he didn’t give up and went through with his idea, which seemed crazy to everyone else in the community. He still had the motivation in the end to finish it and show everybody what he was capable of.
In Williams community and culture, people didn’t like it when other members of the community did things that weren’t normal or weren’t part of their customs. It seemed to scare them almost, and they didn’t like people messing with the system that they already had in place. When people did unusual things, they could do one of two things. First, they could laugh or shun the person. The second way and what was more severe was to say that they were using magic and were bad witches that threatened the population. “Iwe, he’s not a man- just a lazy boy who plays with toys. He’s misala” (Pg. 180). In their language, misala means crazy. This is an instance where people made fun of William only because they don’t know nor would they understand what William was doing. “It’s not a machine- it’s a witch tower. This boy is calling witches!” (Pg. 243). This is when the windmill was almost to fully complete. The structure was so foreign to the people of the village that they blamed it on what they blame almost everything else on- witchcraft.
Another thing that influenced William’s windmill because of his culture was getting supplies to build it. Obviously where he is there aren’t Home Depot’s right around the corner like we do here. William did have the trade market available to him but he didn’t have much extra spending money. His friend Gilbert on special occasions would help him out when he needed something that he couldn’t get anywhere else. Usually just little bits and pieces of it. “My father gave me some small money. Lets use it to buy the dynamo, lets finish the windmill!” (Pg. 182). The dynamo was definitely something you wouldn’t just find for free, but it was available. William was lucky to have the opportunity to get the dynamo free of charge to him. Most of the other materials he needed he could find in the junkyard, some even in his own home. One really important part of his windmill was the bike hanging up in his house. It was his fathers though, and it took awhile to convince him to let him have it. “Oh, it took so long to convince my father to give up that bicycle. I must have begged him for an hour...” (Pg. 186). As you can see, getting materials and supplies to build his windmill was much more complicated than how we built out windmills.
William was extremely intrinsically motivated to build and follow through with his windmill, so much that he risked getting made fun of, blamed for witchcraft, and the problem of getting his hands on the right materials. He could have brought shame to his whole family if his idea failed, and he wouldn’t of had anything to fall back on besides farming. He took the chance and was so confident that he didn’t give up even when the times seemed really bad and that he wouldn’t be able to finish the windmill. But he followed through with it and it was worth it. I think William inspired so many other people because of all the things he had to overcome and still accomplished something amazing.
In Williams community and culture, people didn’t like it when other members of the community did things that weren’t normal or weren’t part of their customs. It seemed to scare them almost, and they didn’t like people messing with the system that they already had in place. When people did unusual things, they could do one of two things. First, they could laugh or shun the person. The second way and what was more severe was to say that they were using magic and were bad witches that threatened the population. “Iwe, he’s not a man- just a lazy boy who plays with toys. He’s misala” (Pg. 180). In their language, misala means crazy. This is an instance where people made fun of William only because they don’t know nor would they understand what William was doing. “It’s not a machine- it’s a witch tower. This boy is calling witches!” (Pg. 243). This is when the windmill was almost to fully complete. The structure was so foreign to the people of the village that they blamed it on what they blame almost everything else on- witchcraft.
Another thing that influenced William’s windmill because of his culture was getting supplies to build it. Obviously where he is there aren’t Home Depot’s right around the corner like we do here. William did have the trade market available to him but he didn’t have much extra spending money. His friend Gilbert on special occasions would help him out when he needed something that he couldn’t get anywhere else. Usually just little bits and pieces of it. “My father gave me some small money. Lets use it to buy the dynamo, lets finish the windmill!” (Pg. 182). The dynamo was definitely something you wouldn’t just find for free, but it was available. William was lucky to have the opportunity to get the dynamo free of charge to him. Most of the other materials he needed he could find in the junkyard, some even in his own home. One really important part of his windmill was the bike hanging up in his house. It was his fathers though, and it took awhile to convince him to let him have it. “Oh, it took so long to convince my father to give up that bicycle. I must have begged him for an hour...” (Pg. 186). As you can see, getting materials and supplies to build his windmill was much more complicated than how we built out windmills.
William was extremely intrinsically motivated to build and follow through with his windmill, so much that he risked getting made fun of, blamed for witchcraft, and the problem of getting his hands on the right materials. He could have brought shame to his whole family if his idea failed, and he wouldn’t of had anything to fall back on besides farming. He took the chance and was so confident that he didn’t give up even when the times seemed really bad and that he wouldn’t be able to finish the windmill. But he followed through with it and it was worth it. I think William inspired so many other people because of all the things he had to overcome and still accomplished something amazing.