preview

The Life Story And Perseverance Of Deo By Tracy Kidder

Decent Essays

In “Strength In What Remains”, Tracy Kidder intricately captures the life story and perseverance of Deo, short for Deogratias. The book begins with a narrow escape from Deo’s burning home country, seemingly signifying the end of his hardships and a flight into a start of something new altogether. Many a time when life seemed to take a turn for the worst, Deo has always lived to tell the tale; as if something was “looking out for Deo” and the author reluctantly questions this supposed luck (177). Nevertheless, it is important to denote that his survival primarily revolved around his aptness to think critically and thus, enabled him to read between the lines, detect patterns, prioritize his life principles and to motivate himself. Firstly, it is pertinent to consider that Deo’s ability to look past the manipulative nature of humans actually determined his survival. This poor boy, who had been kept in the dark about the Hutu-Tutsi conflict, found himself being hunted down as he fled on foot. In one encounter with the militiamen, he didn’t fall for their tricks when they attempted to lure anyone out of hiding by proclaiming “ ‘We see you. Come on out.’ ” (124). Instead of surrendering, Deo was willing to bet that they were “yelling into the forest . . . in effect to people who might be hiding there” and that the only one “stupid enough to obey” was someone who had given in to the exhaustion (124). Therefore, we see that Deo is clever enough to take his chances by not revealing

Get Access