Surber's AP Literature and Composition discussion
Summer Reading-Poisonwood Bible
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Question 2: Based upon Chapter 10 of "How to Read Literature Like a Professor" by Thomas C. Foster
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During the Poisonwood Bible, Orleanna Price has all of her children take a malaria pill to keep them from getting sick. At some point of the story, Ruth May stops taking her pills and ends up getting very sick. Ruth May believes that she has become sick because of all the bad things she has done, for example seeing Axelroot's diamonds. Nelson, The Price's houseboy, gives her a nkisi. She thinks about the amulet and decides that when she sees it again it will be a mamba snake. She does end up getting better, however she remains lifeless. Ruth May still believes that she's going to die, it will make her disappear and move somewhere else. Later, when a green mamba snake bites Ruth May, she dies and disappears into the trues as she just envisioned. Ruth May believed her father and that because she has done bad things, she will be punished for it.
Towards the beginning of the story, when the Price's begin to experience the rainy season, Nathan Price's garden gets ruined by one of the storms. But, before it was ruined the storms seemed to be foreshadowing that something bad was going to happen. Then when it did, and the garden was destroyed, the rain stopped and it became sunny and hot again. When that happened, Nathan fixed up his garden and added hills to it, just like the people from the Congo do, to protect it from further damage.
Personally, when reading "No milk and honey on the other side, either, but just more stinking jungle laying low in the haze, as far far away as the memory of picnics in Georgia," I imagine the description of the dense jungle and thick haze to be a metaphor to just how far away home really is. The immense imagery of the jungle referred to multiple times in the book builds off the constant theme of being away from home and out of your comfort zone.
In the beginning of the book when the Price family first reaches the Congo they talk about the red dirt. They describe the dirt as the color of blood and say that it clings to everything. I believe that the dirt is a symbol of death and struggle. The Congolese walk on this dirt daily and they face dangers and death on a daily basis. When the Price family reaches the Congo, they see the toll that this harsh land has put on the Congolese. They walk around showcasing their scars and their injuries, as proof that they have lived. The dirt was only the beginning of their struggles. Orleanna fought a daily battle to sweep the dirt from her home and to keep death at bay with the quinine pills. However, death was always apparent in their home just like the dirt that never truly left their home or their skin. Eventually, death strikes and takes the life of Ruth May.
During the Price family's trip in the Congo, Nathan Price attempts to have a garden. However, even though the plants grow, they fail to produce fruit. I think the garden is a symbol for Americans' arrogance and ignorance. Americans' arrogance because Nathan Price felt American culture and his religion were better than those of the Congo. Americans' ignorance because everyone in the Price family had no idea what life was like in the Congo or anywhere outside of the U.S. for that matter because they were so wrapped up in their own lives when they were in Georgia. The garden fails to produce fruit because Nathan fails to convince the Congolese that his way is the only way.
Towards the end of the book/part of "The Judges" in "The Poisonwood Bible" a swarm of ants comes through the village of Kilanga and drives everyone from their homes. The event happens sometime in the middle of the night, and everyone is in a frenzy. I believe Kinsolver added in this event to the story to show the significance of one's character in a time of emergency and how it shows a person's true character in a new light. Rachel, the eldest of the Price daughters and arguably the most selfish, is one of the first Price family members to run (she grabs her mirror to save). Nathan Price runs after her to protect her while Orleanna stays behind with Adah, and Ruth May. Leah had already left and was on her own, Orleanna thought she would be okay because she was already very self-sufficient. Though when Leah gets to where the people are being loaded on boats to safety, she then realizes she didn't even bother to see if her family was going to be okay. Nathan prays and preaches the whole time. Adah, who has hemiplegia that causes her to have a limp, gets left behind by her mother, who carries Ruth May. It is debatable as to if Orleanna meant to leave Adah behind in the swarm of people, but the action of Adah having to rely on her inner strength to find purpose and push herself up from being trampled anymore than she already had been was a turning point in her life. Adah generally didn't associate herself with her family's ideas and beliefs, but to have her mother continue to run with the child and not turn to help her made her realize that she could only rely on her own strength to persevere. The villagers as well didn't stop to help Adah either, instead they began to trample over her. Anatole ended up helping the Price family the most because I feel he considers them family.
The danger of contracting malaria in Africa and Ruth May's subsequent response to the quinine pills makes for an interesting metaphor concerning her father, Nathan Price. Ruth May refused to swallow the pills because of the bitter taste they left in her mouth, but was later afflicted with a life-threatening illness. Granted, Ruth May is only a child. She probably never considered the consequences of her actions; she knew the pills tasted bad so she solved the immediate problem the only way she knew how. But we can't ignore the fact that while Ruth May never considered malaria as a possibility, the other Kilanga children were raised to live in perpetual fear of fatal diseases. Was Ruth May being intentionally arrogant? Of course not. However, she exposed her Western ignorance none the less. We can compare Ruth May's actions to Nathan's in the sense that he, too, was unprepared for the African environment but was too stubborn to admit that his ideals were wrong. The pestilence-ridden environment itself represents the dangers of conceit and imperiousness.
After the death of Ruth May, Orleanna and her other daughters leave Kilanga. Just as the remaining female members of the Price family decide to abandon their mission a seemingly never ending rainstorm comes down and bombards the women. Weather is used by authors to reflect the mood the story is currently in, Kingsolver uses this incredible abundance of rain to properly express the sorrow the Price women share over the loss of their youngest. The struggle the women go through to leave Kilanga in this chaotic storm is a symbol of them finding the strength to move on from this terrible chapter of their lives.
When Nathan Price messes with a Poisonwood tree, even when Mama Tataba tells him not to, he is left with a rash and a swollen eye. I see this as a parallel with his efforts to burst in and tell the natives their way of life is wrong, in an effort to convert them. His arrogance and ignorance when approaching the tree is the same as his approach to the people of the Congo, and he payed the price for both.
In the beginning of chapter two--much like chapter one-- we are given a beautiful insight into the mind of the silent protagonist of this book, Orleanna Price. She begins by telling us that everything changed when they lost Mama Tataba and the Parrot. The rain poured and she felt lost, just how she did on her wedding day. She tells us of all of her struggles and efforts to feed and keep her husband and children alive. Every morning of every day, she struggles with a choice; wether to stay with her family or just run away into the Congo. She craves the latter so much that she feels the need to lock herself in just to keep herself from escaping. "The gloom, the humidity, the permanent sour breath of rainy season all bore down on me like a bothersome lover" (91). Orleanna uses the weather as an emphasis. To her, the weather is a manifestation of all of her problems, dread, and negative thoughts. As the rain pours in the Congo, Orleanna drowns in her unhappiness.
To me, the setting of this novel plays an important role in the Prices' fate. The most evidence of this is in the very beginning of the book. Before any characters are introduced, the scenery seems to be calm, going about its business in nature as it usually does. But as Orleanna and her daughters come into play, the scenery is disrupted. I find this to be a symbol of the family's misfortunes when they move to Africa. They have interrupted the ways of the Congo, and so in revenge, the Congo preys on them. I feel the best example of this is the death of Ruth May, who was killed by nature.
When the ants swarmed the village, there were a few interesting metaphors involved. The ants suddenly swarming into the village resemble the dangers of introducing American values to the Congo. These values include democracy, the Christian religion, and everyday American culture. The biting of the ants represent the "bite" to the Congo when new ideologies were presented. When the Price family came back to their home, all that was left of their chickens were bones. This represents how the Congo would suffer because of what the American missionaries have done.
Reading the quote, "The world looked stepped on and drenched, but my sisters ran out squealing like the first free pigs off the ark, eager to see what the flood had left us. A cloud in the air turned out to be tiny flying antlife creatures by the millions," I think of thick fog and how many people's judgement is clouded with thick fog. The significance of the fog is, to me, that sometimes there is a cloud blurring the right path.
At the time of Ruth May's death, Kilanga had been in despair due to an extensive drought. As their mother solemnly created a shroud for Ruth May, the three remaining daughters helped in what ways they could by moving the table out into the front yard and helping carry their baby sister out into the open. The villagers came by to mourn the dead and Orleanna Price moved the contents of their home out into the open for all to see and take what they wish. Then came the rain.While this scene was unfolding, I thought about how the people of Kilanga would feel about the rain, like the death of Ruth May was the ultimate sacrifice to the ancient gods worshipped for years before Tata Price came to their village, in which the gods were no longer filled with spite at the efforts toward a revival.
The drought had been worse than years past and when the rain came, the Price girls stayed out, letting the cool water drip down their faces and arms as they all sat, watching over their sister, taking their time to let things settle within, as they'd had to do during the drought, waiting for the rains to come.
Prior to the scene in which Reverend Price and Tata Ndu argue over whether having a vote on Jesus is fair or not, Leah gives a great description of the setting in which the day took place. She says "It was hot that day, in a season so dry our tongues went to sleep tasting dust and woke up numb. Our favorite swimming holes in the creek, which should have been swirling with fast brown water this time of year, were nothing but dry cradles of white stones" (Kingsolver 327). Leah goes on to describe it in even more detail and paints a very clear picture of what it was like to live through those days of the drought. To me it foreshadowed very bad things to come later on and set a distinct mood in Book Four: Bel and the Serpent. I compared it in my mind to the typical scene of an old western movie. The townspeople fleeing inside to safety and the camera panning across the desolate dusty road in the middle of town as a tumbleweed gently bounces through the frame, setting the scene for the upcoming climax, an epic duel in which one hero may die.
Early on in the book the Price family is faced with their first rain in the Congo. They expected showers and packed their rain jackets but the rain kept falling in ways that they hadn’t planned for. It rained for days on end and by the time that the storm had finally subsided, the roads were washed out and we see just how powerful the rain can be. I think that this is a metaphor for what happens to the family through the book. They expected to have a life that vaguely resembled the one they lived in America but they were met with something much more forceful and destructive. The ties between the family were washed away by forces beyond their control just like those roads that linked the towns. The struggles they face don’t come in afternoon showers but in pounding rain that blocks out the sun and destroys anything that has been worked for.
When Adah says "this is the morning, Congo pink", I personally imagined a thick cloud of fog turned pink by the morning sun, ominously predicting the difficulty that the Prices will have navigating the Congo.
Choose a scene where weather or the environment is more than what it seems and explain the significance.