The Wall by Peter Sís

      "The Wall" is a memoir about a boy growing up in Czechoslovakia during the middle of the Cold war between the Soviet Union and the USA and their allies.  Peter Sís did not right many words to go with the story, but he did use a lot of photos.  However, the amount of words does make the book any worse, because a photo is worth a thousand words. He also uses colors in the book to symbolize what his life is like.
      Sís uses his drawings in the picture book to show how the boys life was changing.  When he was little he could draw anything, so he drew flowers and simple drawings.  However, as he got older he knew more about what was happening and drew his feelings.  Eventually he had no freedom at all.  The picture that touched me the most of the one where the boy had to hide underground his paintings cause he didn't have the freedom to paint what he wanted to.  This got to me because it shows how the Soviet Union didn't give you much freedom.  They wouldn't even let you express you're self so he would have to hid his feelings from the world.
     Throughout the book, the two main colors he uses are red and gray.  He uses those two colors to symbolize his life and how plain.  Gray because gray tends to be a more boring color and his life is plain, and it symbolizes that he does not have much freedom.   Red symbolizes the very little excitement in his life, and the Soviet Union because they had to follow what ever they said and they wanted everyone to think that it they were good.
      The small amount of words in the book are also very important. They describe how he felt at the time and how he had no freedom at home.  How his own drawings were being used against him.  Also, how he was eventually only allowed to dream, he could not draw anywhere with freedom. For years he was trapped in that word and all it did was get worse. All he could dream of was being free. Eventually, he was able to make it over the wall to freedom. Next thing he knew, his dream came true and the wall feel and finally the war was over.  His dreams came true and he was once again free.