Copper Sun

While reading Copper Sun, I couldn’t help but put myself in Amari’s position. All of the hardships and sadness that she endured throughout the story felt real to me, and I think that Draper should be praised for her ability to make the reader relate to the character. Especially in the first section of the book, when Amari’s village is attacked, I was extremely emotional because the character’s life as she knew it was coming to an end. It was hard for me to realize that all of Amari’s hardships were a result of the cruelty of the white men. It makes me angry to know that the whites got away with such horrible treatment of others – they acted as though God wanted them to use the blacks to their personal benefit. In class we discussed the opinion of some Americans who do not recognize slavery as cruel. When I heard this I became even more enraged at my own culture’s history and ignorance.

The book reminds me of Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns. The two are similar because they are the accounts of young woman’s capture and mistreatment in a time of national turmoil. I find the main characters of both novels easy to relate to, and as a young woman, I felt especially moved by their stories. I think that both Copper Sun and A Thousand Splendid Suns impact the reader in more than one respect: the books help to break prejudiced feelings that many Americans have (against African Americans and against Muslims) due to conflicts that the cultures have had in the past; both books tell the frightening stories of rape and abuse that hit home for many female readers. I think that both novels would be appropriate in the classroom because they fit the Adolescent Literature genre, they educate the reader about a particular time in history, and they create cross-cultural awareness. Overall, both books were very enjoyable and I would recommend them very highly.