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The Railway Worker
The mysterious friend of the railway worker. Though the railway worker insists that his friend is going to help Saroo, Saroo understands immediately that the men aren’t to be trusted: the friend asks Saroo to lie down next to him during their first meeting. Though nothing untoward happens, Saroo comes to believe later that the friend intended to traffic Saroo into slavery of some sort.
The Friend Quotes in A Long Way Home
The A Long Way Home quotes below are all either spoken by The Friend or refer to The Friend. 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:
).
4. Salvation Quotes
Of course, I can't be sure what the railway worker's friend had planned or what happened to the children who were grabbed from the station that night I slept nearby, but I feel pretty certain that they faced greater horrors than I ever did.
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Explanation and Analysis:
After Saroo ends up in police custody, he steps back from his narrative and recognizes that though being at the station was terrifying at the time, it was probably the best thing that could've happened to him. He goes on later to describe some of the horrors that befall many children on Indian streets, such as being trafficked into slavery or sold for their organs, and he recognizes that the railway worker's friend likely intended to do something of that sort with Saroo. Essentially, this is one of those moments that allows Saroo to recognize that his experience was absolutely Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut
The types of people who had tried to capture me when I was on the streets clearly didn't let walls and gates stop them...I know now that few are taken off the streets, and many of those who are have a lot of suffering ahead of them.
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Saroo is specifically describing the people who snuck into Liluah at night to either abuse children there or take them away. This demonstrates a major failing on the part of Calcutta authorities to protect the children they're supposed to, showing another way that bureaucracy can sometimes get in the way of actually behaving kindly. Though Liluah is described to Saroo as a place where he'll be safer than out on the streets, he sees firsthand that this is simply not the case, and those adults who are charged with protecting him cannot be counted on to do so. As Saroo Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam
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The Friend Character Timeline in A Long Way Home
The timeline below shows where the character The Friend appears in A Long Way Home. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
3. Survival
...life. They allow him to sleep in a bed of straw and arrange for a friend who can help to visit. The next day, the friend shows up, sits on Saroo’s...
(full context)
4. Salvation
...It’s likely he would’ve died, as most homeless kids in Kolkata die. The railway worker’s friend may have intended to traffic Saroo into sexual slavery or sell him for his organs....
(full context)
...inside. He reasons now that they were probably people like the railway worker and his friend, and walls don’t stop them—though neither do the adults who work there. About a month...
(full context)
