ect(Refl + Conn)

What reflections and connections can you make with this novel?

Although it may sound shallow, while reading Peace Child, the thought that was forefront in my mind was, 'I can't imagine living like the Sawi. I'm so glad I live here and not there.' I found myself suddenly grateful for the mountain loads of homework I had. Honestly, I'd rather taken on school than a horde of cannibalistic head-hunters any day. Who wouldn't?

Of course, I did have deeper thoughts, as well.

I always knew that everyone didn't live like us. It's always a shock, though, to see or hear or read about a group of people living a completely different lifestyle, like the Sawi. Their way of life seems almost chimerical, like something that could only happen in a story book, something that was only magnified as we were reading about the Sawi.

Everyone knows the cliche, "Deep down we're all the same."

Are we really?

I personally think that although this saying is meant to mean everyone, as in everyone in the world, we often interpret it as "Deep down we, from the same society, are all the same." Why do I think this? It's because we most often use this saying on children when teaching them that skin color should not be a barrier in making new acquaintances. We don't think about the far-reaching implications this saying has. Deep down, are we really the same as the Sawi?

I can't say.

Even if you go past the physical differences, their society was built upon something so radically different from what we know, it's hard to say that we're the same, even deep down. Now, they are much more civilized, but before, their entire society was founded on what we believe to be absolutely wrong. Are we the same? In some aspects, yes, we are. We're all humans, we're all equal, and we all have the same rights. Yet, our cores are, or were, extremely different, so it's hard to say that we're the same, even deep down.

Of course, this doesn't mean that we're above the Sawi. It just means that we're different. And anyways, if "deep down" we really all are the same, it'd be a rather mundane world in my opinion.