POV+-+Taking+a+Stand

= Taking A Stand: =

An Essay about the novel Rice Without Rain
Jinda and her family live in a village called Mae Kung. The whole village is extremely poor and they hardly have enough food to feed their people. For example, Baby Oi is very malnourished and he needs food to make him healthier. He is not given enough food because the village doesn't make enough food for everyone. The village has to give a certain amount of rice as a tax to the landlord, Dusit. I think this is wrong because even though the village people worked in the fields and had to stand in the sun all day, they still don't get to keep all of the rice. I agree with the character, Ned, who tells Inthorn (the village headman) to refuse to pay the rice tax.

One of the reasons that I agree with Ned is because Dusit and his businesses have a surplus of rice and other resources while Jinda and her village don't have enough rice to eat. The least the village is asking for was to give a little less rice to Dusit so that they could have enough to feed themselves. Dusit was unhappy with the thought of getting a little less rice even though it wouldn't hurt him at all. Instead of trying to think of a solution, he went ahead and tried to find another way to hurt the village.

The second reason why I agree with Ned is because the village people had to stand in the boiling sun making rice just to give most of it to Dusit. Dusit doesn't know what it feels like to have to work in the field the whole day and not get enough back. The old and young don't have a choice to work or not because the village needs as many people as they can to try and grow more rice. Imagine having to wake up each day and not eating so that your family has enough food to feed a rich family. You have to go work in the boiling sun but still not get enough to eat.

The last reason why I agree with Ned is because Ned worked a little bit in the field as well. He didn't work as long as the Mae Kung people have but he worked enough to realize that what Dusit is doing is really wrong. Ned wants the best for the Mae Kung people. Ned persuaded Inthorn to give less tax and even when Inthorn went to prison, Ned continued fighting for what was right. Ned never gave up, even when he felt like there was nothing more to do. When Inthorn died, Ned told Jinda that he died to help the future. Inthorn did help the fhture because he showed that the way to start fighting for something takes courage. I think that Ned would continue to fight for all the villages that are having the same problems.

When I first read this conflict between Inthom and Ned I agreed more with Inthorn because Ned had nothing to lose, while Inthom had a whole village to lose. But after I fmished the rest ofthe book I realized I was incorrect because even though Inthorn left the village to go to prison he started something that would continue and help the rest of the villages. If Ned wouldn't have told Inthorn about how to stop having to give half the tax then more villages would be destroyed and there would be no one to make rice. Even though Inthorn died, Ned will still continue to fight for what is right.