The Resilient Girl

Resilience is one of the main themes in the novel, The Bite of the Mango. Throughout the beginning of the book to the 14th chapter, the novel shows how resilient Mariatu is. Mariatu Kamara lived a fairly peaceful life, until one day a rumor went around saying that the rebel soldiers were bound to attack. And eventually they finally did, during the attack Mariatu got her arms chopped off by the armed rebel soldiers. She has had a long journey ever since that day, but that didn’t stop her from giving up at life. There were times when she felt she was unworkable because her hands were missing. She learned to work around this disability, and was adapting to a new way of life. Mariatu became suicidal after she realized she was sexually assaulted and she is holding the baby of a man from the village she used to live in. But lucky Abibatu was there to stop her. In the moment Mariatu thought she had no future, “ ‘Don’t talk this way,’ Abibatu said firmly, spinning me around to face her. ‘You have many things to live for. Your mother. Your father. Your cousin's, grandmother, aunties. They all love you, and you love them.” this is found on page 73. I think what Abibatu said to her in the moment, helped her realize there are people who care about her and that they will help her raise her child. She continued to live her life, and she gave birth to her baby and tried to securely raise her child with all the resources she has at camp. “Abibatu held Abdul in one hand as she helped prop me up to a sitting position with pillows behind me. She shaped my arms into a cradle, then placed the baby in them. I’d never felt much love in my heart.” found on page 96. Mariatu had mixed emotions, there were events that caused depression, and events that resulted in moments of happiness, this all caused her to forget about the what had happened during the time of the war. “Abdul was about 10 months old. Over the past few weeks, his stomach had become swollen, so swollen it looked as if he was carrying a small baby inside.” found on page 106. Mariatu tried her best to help Abdul survive, but unfortunately he didn’t. Mariatu blamed his death on herself, she thought she didn’t love him enough. This was a very depressing point in her lifetime, and with help from her family she was able to overcome this death. When Mariatu was around eight months pregnant she had gone to the camp theater, she was convinced that she should attend again, and that it would help move on from what has happened. A few weeks after the funeral for her son, Abdul, she was found attending many practices with the theater group. “I was trying to think of the best excuse i could offer to get out of performing. But something else was so strong, and i decided to join the theater troupe onstage after all. We had an important purpose: to help raise awareness of my country’s problems.” on page 121. Mariatu is a very strong, young, women and she was able to use her past experiences to help the world understand what some areas must overcome.This was a very insane part of her life, and i believe she handled the situation in an acceptable way, doing her best to overcome difficulties.