Seeing Your World Through a Stranger’s Eyes

Point of View and Home of the Brave 

by Katherine Applegate

Lucky CFG readers assigned to read Home of the Brave (HOB), I greet you and congratulate you on having splendid teachers who assign such splendid books. As Kek reminds us, “to go to school and learn is a fine honor.” (page 63)

The late fiction writer and teacher, John Gardner, famously said there are only two kinds of plots: 1. A man goes on a journey, and 2. A stranger comes to town. Home of the Brave uses both plots. Kek goes on a journey to America, and for those he meets, he is the stranger who comes to town.

Fiction invites us to use imagination and empathy to come as close as we can to seeing the world through another’s eyes. Katherine Applegate has never been a Sudanese refugee in Minneapolis, but with time, research, and careful listening, she created a character who allowed us to imagine what a real refugee might feel upon arriving in America.

In studying fiction, we talk a lot about Point of View (or POV). Who is speaking? What do they see? What do they feel? What did they know beforehand? What do they understand, and not understand? How might their past experiences shape how they react to things today?

Through Kek’s eyes, we see our own world as if for the first time. (Minneapolis isn’t Boston, but it’s close enough. Especially in winter!) Through Kek’s point of view, we see how coming to America from a war-torn place can be a blessing of safety and opportunity, and also a source of pain, loss, fear, and loneliness.

Kek’s confusion over things we understand provides much of the humor and fun of the story, and is the source of some of Kek’s day-to-day problems. Did you cringe when you saw him load the dirty dishes into the laundry machine? I did! His puzzlement over idioms and sayings we use all the time, such as “What’s up?” and “Those kids will eat you alive” and “Keep your eyes open” and “Get your feet wet” was charming and funny. But there were times when the contrast between what he was used to, and what he encountered in America, was overwhelming to him.

Think, for example, of Kek’s first visit to a grocery store. I’ll bet that you expected Kek would be amazed by all the food. You might have predicted that. But when he touched a veggie and began to cry, I was surprised. Were you? Peering more closely through his POV and memories, I began to understand. Of course, someone who had lived in a tent with a baby starving to death, someone who had waited in line for nine hours for a handful of grain, would be more than surprised at the sight of an American grocery store.  It might be horrifying to realize that while his loved ones back home die for want of basic food, many Americans can have fresh food daily, and their pick of snacks and treats.