Purple Heart
Purple Heart is a revealing and emotional novel written by
Ta’afuli Fiu or Andrew as he is known in English. The novel Purple Heart is
about Andrew and his journey through life battling with a heart disease that
bought him to deaths door step numerous times. This novel shows the truth in a
life of a forever patient. I think the moral of this story is that whatever
life throws at you, you have to live on like every day could be your last and
because life is a precious thing and can be taken away from you in a matter of
seconds.
Andrew’s life was one that was never short on events, if he
wasn’t having one of his 5 open heart surgeries, he had a child at a young age
and had to live half of his life in a hospital bed. Life was always throwing
obstacles in his way; he seemed to never get a break. His heart had been
through physical and emotional pain that never seemed to stop.
A main theme that I noticed right throughout the book was
the racism that he had to suffer though. People were always putting him down
because of the colour of his skin. This really opened my eyes as I didn’t
realise how bad it can get for some people, Mr Weston (name changed) was the
worst Culprit in Andrews life, that he spoke of in his book, putting him down
with racism. For example there was a moment in the book where Andrew took a lot
as My Weston words to Andrew were” You bloody coconut proof-loving queer shit
bastard useless overstaying black cannibal rapist little burglaring son of a
B****, f*** off out of my room.” This made me incredibly angry as no one ever
deserves to be spoken to with such disrespect.
This book really interested me because the way he overcame
everything and he stayed strong for his family, faith and most important for
himself, even though sometimes he felt weak and could have just given up, but
he didn’t. This should be a lesson to all; if you stay strong you will be able
to get though anything. His experience was something you can learn from. You
should always be thankful for what you are given whether it is good or bad
because someone else out there always has it worse than you. The bad things in
life are what makes you strong and how you react to them is what shapes you as
a person. Andrew had many near death experiences and in that way I could relate
as eiler this year I almost drowned while kayaking, and it was one of the most
frightening moments in my life just thinking about it makes me feel sick. For
me one of the hardest things about the event was that I have dedicated a lot of
my life to swimming and to think that in that one moment none of it mattered
when I felt my body get pulled under I truly thought that was the end for me
even though I was wearing a life jacket my spray skirt had gotten caught to a
branch in the water after I had capsized near a fallen tree. This showed me
that if it’s your time you will go and there’s nothing that can stop it. Lucky
for me it wasn’t mine and I managed to untangle myself in time because I was so
tired after it, it truly does take everything out of you.
So I can honestly say this book was inspiring and I found it
amazing to read. Andrew’s story of power, strength and determination showed
that you should never give up, not even to the last breath because it makes you
who you are, after a moment like that you truly feel like you can conquer the
world.
