A Long Walk to Water

by

Linda Sue Park

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on A Long Walk to Water makes teaching easy.
Nya is the other main character in A Long Walk to Water, also based on a real person. A young girl, Nya spends much of her waking life walking to and from a large pond, miles away from her family’s village. She collects water from the pond into a gourd, balances the gourd on her head, and walks home, where she immediately deposits the water, turns back, and does it all over again. Linda Sue Park doesn’t spend much time describing Nya’s personality—readers know that she’s a devoted sister and a loving daughter, but don’t know much else about her. In many ways, Nya’s role in the book is to serve as a witness to the enormous changes affecting her village in the early 2000s: thanks to Salva Dut’s activism, wells are being built, bringing safe drinking water to thousands and saving Nya countless hours of work, which frees her to begin attending school.

Nya Quotes in A Long Walk to Water

The A Long Walk to Water quotes below are all either spoken by Nya or refer to Nya. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Survival Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

Nya filled the container all the way to the top. Then she tied the gourd back in place and took the padded cloth doughnut from her pocket. The doughnut went on her head first, followed by the heavy container of water, which she would hold in place with one hand.

Related Characters: Nya
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 14
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

Nya nodded. She picked up the plastic container and took Akeer by the hand. Home for just long enough to eat, Nya would now make her second trip to the pond. To the pond and back—to the pond and back—nearly a full day of walking altogether. This was Nya’s daily routine seven months of the year.

Related Characters: Nya, Akeer
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 20
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

The water from the holes in the lakebed could be collected only in tiny amounts. If her mother tried to boil such a small amount, the pot would be dry long before they could count to two hundred.

Related Characters: Nya
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 45
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

Nya went back and picked up the plastic can. She felt as if she were flying. School! She would learn to read and write!

Related Characters: Nya
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

In a few more days, the school would be finished. Nya and Dep and Akeer would all go to school, along with the other children. Next year there would be a marketplace where the villagers could sell and buy vegetables and chickens and other goods. There was even talk of a clinic someday—a medical clinic, so they wouldn’t have to walk so far to get help, as they had to when Akeer was ill.

Related Characters: Nya, Akeer
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 113
Explanation and Analysis:

The Dinka and the Nuer were enemies—had been for hundreds of years.

“Why would a Dinka bring water to us?” she wondered aloud.

“I heard Uncle and Father talking about him,” Dep said. “He has drilled many wells for his own people. This year he decided to drill for the Nuer as well.”

Related Characters: Nya (speaker), Dep (speaker), Salva Dut
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 114
Explanation and Analysis:

The man smiled. "What is your name?” he asked.
"I am Nya."
"I am happy to meet you, Nya," he said. "My name is Salva. "

Related Characters: Salva Dut (speaker), Nya (speaker)
Page Number: 115
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire A Long Walk to Water LitChart as a printable PDF.
A Long Walk to Water PDF

Nya Quotes in A Long Walk to Water

The A Long Walk to Water quotes below are all either spoken by Nya or refer to Nya. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Survival Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

Nya filled the container all the way to the top. Then she tied the gourd back in place and took the padded cloth doughnut from her pocket. The doughnut went on her head first, followed by the heavy container of water, which she would hold in place with one hand.

Related Characters: Nya
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 14
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

Nya nodded. She picked up the plastic container and took Akeer by the hand. Home for just long enough to eat, Nya would now make her second trip to the pond. To the pond and back—to the pond and back—nearly a full day of walking altogether. This was Nya’s daily routine seven months of the year.

Related Characters: Nya, Akeer
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 20
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

The water from the holes in the lakebed could be collected only in tiny amounts. If her mother tried to boil such a small amount, the pot would be dry long before they could count to two hundred.

Related Characters: Nya
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 45
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

Nya went back and picked up the plastic can. She felt as if she were flying. School! She would learn to read and write!

Related Characters: Nya
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

In a few more days, the school would be finished. Nya and Dep and Akeer would all go to school, along with the other children. Next year there would be a marketplace where the villagers could sell and buy vegetables and chickens and other goods. There was even talk of a clinic someday—a medical clinic, so they wouldn’t have to walk so far to get help, as they had to when Akeer was ill.

Related Characters: Nya, Akeer
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 113
Explanation and Analysis:

The Dinka and the Nuer were enemies—had been for hundreds of years.

“Why would a Dinka bring water to us?” she wondered aloud.

“I heard Uncle and Father talking about him,” Dep said. “He has drilled many wells for his own people. This year he decided to drill for the Nuer as well.”

Related Characters: Nya (speaker), Dep (speaker), Salva Dut
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 114
Explanation and Analysis:

The man smiled. "What is your name?” he asked.
"I am Nya."
"I am happy to meet you, Nya," he said. "My name is Salva. "

Related Characters: Salva Dut (speaker), Nya (speaker)
Page Number: 115
Explanation and Analysis: