“Stories express our longing not only to make a difference today but to see what is possible for tomorrow.” (Wright 93). In the book The Rent Collector by Camron Wright, we read about Sang Ly who by learning to read and understand literature changes not only herself but others around her. Literature is all around and helps create change.
Our lives and everything around us is literature. When Sopeap is teaching Sang Ly in one of her lessons, Sang Ly wonders why we read stories and how they can help her Sopeap respond, “...every story we read, Sang Ly, is about us, in one way or another.” (94). As Sang Ly reads more stories about fictional characters she realizes that those fictional characters are actually real characters in her life. Sang …show more content…
When Sang Ly first asks Sopeap to teach her and then has her first lesson, Sopeap asks Sang Ly why she wants to learn to read, Sang Ly’s answer is, “I need to teach Nisay to read so that he can find a way out of this dump… The only way my son will get better is if I get him out of Stung Meanchey.” (30). The conditions at the dump were awful and Sang Ly understood that, and that her son was sick because of the dump.After Sang Ly learns to read she can teach her son, when her son grows up and he already knows how read this can help him test into a good school. After Sopeap questions about how it will make Nisay better or even heal him Sang Ly responds, “I don’t expect reading to make his body well. But I hope reading will give him something to look forward to, a reason to fight.” (30). Although Sang Ly believes reading will help her son she knows that it is not going to automatically make him better. Sang Ly wants to give her son a hope that he can be better, and that that hope comes only from reading literature. Physical well being can be dramatically influenced by the literature around …show more content…
After finally learning to read Sang Ly can’t stop and finally when her husband Ki starts complaining she realizes how mentally draining it is and she says,“I have been reading aloud for so long from the books she left me… I feel my head is really going to explode.”(61). Sang Ly has just learned to read and because of that she can’t stop thinking about it. All of her thoughts are about the stuff she has been reading and what literature is to her. When Sopeap left to die in her house at the end of the book she left one story for Sang Ly that secretly explained where she was. Because Sang Ly had read so much literature and knew that everything meant something. This literature changed her course of action and she sought out Sopeap and left the dump. When Sang Ly starts getting a weird dream over and over that she can’t understand she goes to Sopeap for help. Sopeap shares this quote and then Sang Ly figures out what she must do, “He believed that dreams are important, that we should ponder them for meaning and answers to our life’s problems… I instinctively understand what I must do. I need to travel with my son to the Prey Veng province.” (170). Sang Ly was able to interpret her dreams because she knew that they were literature and that literature always means something. This caused her to leave the dump and travel to the province to the healer. The healer ends up helping
Our lives and everything around us is literature. When Sopeap is teaching Sang Ly in one of her lessons, Sang Ly wonders why we read stories and how they can help her Sopeap respond, “...every story we read, Sang Ly, is about us, in one way or another.” (94). As Sang Ly reads more stories about fictional characters she realizes that those fictional characters are actually real characters in her life. Sang …show more content…
When Sang Ly first asks Sopeap to teach her and then has her first lesson, Sopeap asks Sang Ly why she wants to learn to read, Sang Ly’s answer is, “I need to teach Nisay to read so that he can find a way out of this dump… The only way my son will get better is if I get him out of Stung Meanchey.” (30). The conditions at the dump were awful and Sang Ly understood that, and that her son was sick because of the dump.After Sang Ly learns to read she can teach her son, when her son grows up and he already knows how read this can help him test into a good school. After Sopeap questions about how it will make Nisay better or even heal him Sang Ly responds, “I don’t expect reading to make his body well. But I hope reading will give him something to look forward to, a reason to fight.” (30). Although Sang Ly believes reading will help her son she knows that it is not going to automatically make him better. Sang Ly wants to give her son a hope that he can be better, and that that hope comes only from reading literature. Physical well being can be dramatically influenced by the literature around …show more content…
After finally learning to read Sang Ly can’t stop and finally when her husband Ki starts complaining she realizes how mentally draining it is and she says,“I have been reading aloud for so long from the books she left me… I feel my head is really going to explode.”(61). Sang Ly has just learned to read and because of that she can’t stop thinking about it. All of her thoughts are about the stuff she has been reading and what literature is to her. When Sopeap left to die in her house at the end of the book she left one story for Sang Ly that secretly explained where she was. Because Sang Ly had read so much literature and knew that everything meant something. This literature changed her course of action and she sought out Sopeap and left the dump. When Sang Ly starts getting a weird dream over and over that she can’t understand she goes to Sopeap for help. Sopeap shares this quote and then Sang Ly figures out what she must do, “He believed that dreams are important, that we should ponder them for meaning and answers to our life’s problems… I instinctively understand what I must do. I need to travel with my son to the Prey Veng province.” (170). Sang Ly was able to interpret her dreams because she knew that they were literature and that literature always means something. This caused her to leave the dump and travel to the province to the healer. The healer ends up helping