The Red Pencil

“‘Amira Bright—yaaaa! / Girl child, rising.’ // In Dando’s arms, / I can fly. // In Dando’s arms, / I am bright.”

Dando throws Amira up into the air, calling her “Amira Bright” as he greets her on her birthday. His encouragement and support of Amira and her dreams are evident in this quote. With Dando, Amira truly feels bright; with him, she feels she can fly, literally and metaphorically.

“When it comes to schooling, / my mother is the most tight-minded of anyone. […] Muma, / born into a flock of women, / locked in a hut of tradition. // That hut. / A closed-off place / with no windows for letting in fresh ideas. // Sometimes I want to ask, / ‘Muma, can you breathe?’”

Amira describes her mother’s views on schooling as limited to tradition. Firstly, this quote frames Muma as a product of her conditioning, having been born into a generation of women steeped in tradition. Secondly, the hut symbolizes a lack of space in which to move and explore, a consequence of tradition; to Amira, tradition restricts women to the domestic sphere. Finally, this quote exemplifies one of the many ways in which the image of air or wind (breath) is used—that which is vital to life being lacking when one operates solely on tradition.

“He said, ‘This baby will keep us all strong. / That is the way of a child who comes / with so much specialness. / We will stretch to meet her.’ // Little Leila, / loved.”

Dando welcomes Leila despite the difficult circumstances surrounding her birth, as well as her physical disability. This quote captures the kind of progressiveness and positivity characteristic of Dando: He views Leila’s condition not as a burden, but something that will keep the family bonded and strong as they stretch to meet her needs. Dando’s love as a parent is unconditional, toward both his daughters.

“Then one day / Leila met Gamal, / a spirited village boy her same age. // Gamal, / sometimes filled with the wind’s mischief. / Other times, wise for a child.”

Leila meets Gamal when she is very little, following which she begins to run and play with far less inhibition. Gamal is the first person to see and challenge Leila as an equal, and the two go on to become good friends—with Gamal even teaching Leila how to play soccer. The duality in Gamal’s character translates in different ways in a later part of the story: Even as his parents’ deaths traumatize him and turn him aggressive, he finds a way to grieve them that is beautiful and expressive.

“Goz is my place to be. / I’m at home in so much sand. // Ya, goz. / Where my new twig and I / wander, wander, wander.”

Amira feels at home in the soil of South Darfur, the goz. Sand and soil serve as both symbol and recurring motif throughout the novel. As a symbol, the goz highlights the ideas of fertility and creativity: Crops and plants grow in abundance in South Darfur, as do Amira’s dreams through her sand-pictures. However, both are missing at Kalma. As a motif, the goz points to the theme of Land and Home.

“My hand / holds my twig. // But my twig goes / on its own. // My sparrow—that’s what’s inside me: / flight.”

Amira describes how her hand and twig create pictures in the sand almost of their own volition. The sparrow is an important symbol in the novel, pointing to the ideas of freedom and creativity. Amira herself identifies with the sparrow, constantly referring to her spirit as one and depicting herself similarly in the novel’s illustrations.

“What Else Is Possible? / is a game about looking at things / in shiny ways.”

“What Else Is Possible?” is a game that Dando introduces to Amira, in which they imagine alternate possibilities to real or hypothetical scenarios—all of which must be positive. Besides displaying Dando’s positive outlook on life, this game strongly influences Amira’s own worldview and contributes to her optimism and resilience at a later part of the story.

“Muma lets me touch the toob’s delicate embroidery. / These stitches are a joy-swirl. // One of the lovely things / about Muma’s long-held traditions.”

Amira admires the embroidery on her mother’s wedding toob. Although Amira believes her mother’s views to be limited to tradition, she can also see the beauty in some of her traditions. Significantly, it is the embroidery on the toob that causes Amira to think so, pointing to the positive power of art, an idea that will recur throughout the novel.

“Mangoes, / spilling / their tangy insides / when Leila and I / bury our noses and teeth / to slurp at their pillowy middles. // Ya—it is a good morning.”

Amira and her family eat mangoes for breakfast. This quote highlights three things: Firstly, it is representative of the kind of vivid imagery that Andrea Davis Pinkney employs to bring the story to life alongside illustrations. Secondly, the mango is a rich, juicy fruit, and the fact that Amira’s family is feasting on it speaks to the fertility and abundance of their land. Finally, Amira’s comment that it is a good morning becomes tragically ironic in retrospect, as the Janjaweed attack the village later that same day.

“The luxury of an easy walk / is something we can’t afford. / We forge forward. / Yesterday is a land gone.”

The surviving villagers of the Janjaweed attack trek the desert at night in search of asylum, unable to stop anywhere and rest. This quote highlights how Amira and her village have no time to process their grief and displacement. They have to keep moving until they reach safety.

“If Sayidda Moon decides to flee, too, / if, like us, she wants to hide, / this time we do not call her. // This time only, / we let Sayidda Moon conceal her face.”

As the displaced group travels at night, they are thankful for dark, moonless nights; for the first time, they do not call out the moon as is their custom. The abandonment of this tradition points to how drastically Amira’s reality has been altered, as traditions and beliefs that were once held dear are now beginning to lose meaning. This points to the theme of The Relationship between Tradition and Faith.

“This place, / this dwelling, / a misshapen dome. // Home?"

Amira is unable to comprehend how her shanty at Kalma, made of plastic scraps of old rice bags, will ever feel like home. Calling to the theme of Land and Home, everything at Kalma stands in stark contrast to Amira’s village, the latter of which was fertile and abundant. Amira is unable to accept that this “dwelling” is her new home, foreshadowing how she will eventually leave to find home elsewhere.

“Bodies / dropping / like overripe mangoes, / surrendered / from their places on a beautiful tree.”

Amira remembers the scene of the Janjaweed attack. Her use of overripe mangoes as a metaphor to describe bodies dropping to the ground ties in with how she and her family feasted on mangoes the morning of the attack. While this rich breakfast had led Amira to believe it would be a good day, it was, in retrospect, the worst day of her life.

“The soil at Kalma is dark, / dry, / smelly. // […] A sour mix of rot / and sorrow, / rancid trash, / decaying memories. // […] There is so much sadness / in Kalma’s dirt. // […] My hand’s dance is gone. / My sparrow has lost its wings. // Goz, I miss you.”

Amira describes the soil at Kalma, which stands in stark contrast to the soft goz back home. The goz was home to Amira. As soil symbolizes both fertility and creativity (or there lack of), it makes sense that Amira is unable to draw sand-pictures in Kalma’s soil. She misses the goz, the motif of soil pointing to the theme of Land and Home again.

“This strangled birdsong / can’t escape its own echo.”

Amira feels birdsong trapped inside her, symbolizing her voice that is struggling to break free. Although Amira has been through so much trauma, to the point of losing her voice, her inner resilience is still visible: She can feel her voice struggling to break through, indicating that it will only be a matter of time and healing before she speaks again.

“Even though / this is what they / say, / my heart asks: // ‘What else is possible?’”

Amira hears the elders discussing how it would be unsafe to ever leave Kalma, but still considers the possibilities that lie outside. Dando’s game and optimistic outlook have had a significant influence on Amira: Even when she is still grieving and unable to speak, she can’t help but ponder a better future. This also points to the theme of Resilience and Growth in the Face of Change.

“[At] Kalma, / our customs have become / a muddied swamp / of rituals from / tribes and villages / throughout Sudan. // […] Tonight the full moon / is unwelcome.”

The moon remains unwelcome for Amira at Kalma, her village’s customs having gotten lost in the jumble of cultures. In keeping with the theme of Tradition and Faith, localized ideas and traditions give way as Amira encounters different ways of doing things at Kalma. This is complemented by the presence of a television, which affords Amira glimpses into different worlds than the only one she’s known.

“Old Anwar says, / ‘Boy child, if you must hear talking, / if you must stomp with both feet, / come with me. / We’ll march to the prayer tent / and talk to Allah.’”

When Old Anwar catches Gamal throwing a tantrum, he takes the boy to the camp’s prayer tent. In an exploration of Tradition and Faith, the latter plays a significant role in lending the characters strength and aiding their healing. Old Anwar continues to pray and feel gratitude, and when he introduces the same practices to Gamal and Amira, both children also benefit. Gamal eventually settles down and regains his old joviality, while Amira regains hope for the future.

“The food is good, / soothing. // It is made tasty / by Old Anwar’s proclamation: // ‘We are now a family.’”

Old Anwar cooks for the group, and Amira relishes the meal for its taste as well as the former’s declaration of them being family. Food plays an important role in Amira’s relationship with Old Anwar. Old Anwar repeatedly brings Amira gifts of food, such as a roasted yam and orange Fanta, bringing them closer together and leading him to become a teacher and surrogate parent.

“‘Gamal,’ I ask, ‘you have drawn / this?’ // He nods. // I say, / ‘It is a beautiful way to cry.’”

Amira admires Gamal’s drawings in which he has sketched his dead parents in the sky and himself crying while reaching for them. Just as Amira acknowledges that this is Gamal’s way of grieving, Old Anwar notes that her drawings of the Janjaweed attack are her way of healing. Art as a therapeutic form of expression is seen with both Gamal and Amira; as they draw and relive their trauma, they begin to heal.

“Quickly, I try to replace doubt / with a hope-bell / whose sound is just as loud. // If I escape Kalma’s boundaries, / what else is possible?”

Amira begins to imagine what may lie ahead if she leaves Kalma, and when she starts to feel afraid, she actively replaces her doubts with hope. This is indicative of how much she has healed and progressed in her time at Kalma, pointing to the theme of Resilience, Growth, and Change. Where Amira once felt her spirit silenced and was unable to speak even if she tried, she is now able to actively quell doubt and steer herself toward a brighter future.

“Maybe they know there’s a way out, / but are too frightened by the possibility. // […] But they can’t stay inside forever, / crowding, / swarming, / breathing stale Fanta air. // They must fly or die.”

Amira watches the family of flies stuck inside her Fanta bottle, struggling to escape. Her reflection that they must fly or die is a projection of how she, herself, feels at Kalma. The image of air is used once again: The air inside the Fanta bottle is “stale” and stagnant, similar to how the “tradition hut” was closed to fresh air (Important Quote #3). This is antithetical to the person Amira is, who arrived as fast as the wind when she was born. Amira needs to move and explore if her spirit is to stay alive, like the sparrow that must be allowed to fly. Thus, she, too, must “fly or die.”

“Am I truly seeing / what I am seeing? // Bright guidance! / Dando’s silhouette! // My feet follow fast.”

After Amira manages to slip past the guards at Kalma’s borders, she begins to feel doubt—however, she sees Dando’s silhouette on the ground in the moonlight and feels heartened again. This stands in direct contrast to how, when Amira was traveling the desert with the rest of her village, she would unsuccessfully try to imagine Dando’s footprints beside her. She is now far away from that state of grief and hopelessness; as she leaves Kalma, she is filled with positivity and hope. Her perception of Dando’s silhouette in the moonlight is symbolic of this state of mind, and underlines the theme of Resilience, Growth, and Change.