The Characters are Nya and Salva from A Long Walk to Water. It is suggested this information is obtained from chapters 3 through 4.
As with most wars, children do not remain unscathed. In the novel, Park shows how children in the Sudan fare when their elders are fighting. Salva and the other boys in his school are likely to be swept up into fighting for the rebels if they are caught. Children lose their parents and support systems, and they are often thrust out into the wild without anything to assist them. If they are lucky, they will fall in with helpful adults, but even then, the people who carry Salva with them are resentful of him. Both Nya and Salva live within the confines of their culture, but I think this is a fractured culture, especially for Salva. War and lack of basics like clean water makes the warmth of Sudaneese culture fragmented and often stressful.
