The two stories of the Poisonwood Bible and The Mosquito Coast are very similar and yet I noticed many differences between the two stories. Both stories were centered around a controlling and over-bearing father who dragged there families to Africa for their own personal benefits and accomplishments that would be supposedly beneficial to their families and Africa and yet some how in both stories you come to the realization that the "benefits" is more of a cover than anything else. Both fathers come to Africa with high hopes soon to be crushed but they keep their heads up and never lose faith in belief of being better than the native people of the country. The father's strong opinions are originally backed by their children who begin to turn on the father's towards the end of the story. The change in heart of the children starts to break the families apart. The stories are both centered on a father's obsession with himself and his beliefs in things (bible and ice machine). The bible and the ice machine both start out innocent enough as a way to benefit the native African people but end up in self-destruction.
Though these stories have many parallels and similarities, they are full of differences as well. In The Mosquito Coast the father seems to have more confidence in and love for his family although this does begin to change along the way, however he never reaches the extent of coldness as Nathan carries throughout. Nathan from the beginning had the idea of ruling the natives where as Allie set out with the mind to work for the natives rather than having them work for him. The opposite happens in both cases. Nathan is all for religion and is a missionary while Allie hates the idea of religion being spread to Africans. The most significant difference to me is that if someone outside his family doesn't want to follow Allie he gives them that option where as Nathan simply won't stand for any one not following him exactly.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Monday, March 26, 2007
Lit Circle #3: Bel and the Serpent: New Critic
1. “ On the same August day, this is all I knew: the pain in my house hold seemed plenty large enough to fill the whole world. Ruth May was slipping away into her fever. And it was Rachel’s seventeenth birthday. I was wrapping up green glass earrings in tissue paper, hoping to make some small peace with my eldest child, while I tried to sponge the fire out of my youngest. And President Eisenhower was right then sending his orders to take over the Congo. Imagine that. His household was the world, and he’s finished making up his mind about things. He’d given Lumumba a chance, he felt. The Congo had been independent for fifty-one days.” (Orleanna: 320)
This quote seemed very significant to me because of the way it paralleled Orleanna's life and household with Eisenhower household and the global community. I think that Orleanna feels guilty about how much such insignificant things as her daughters birthday affected her and how little global issues such as the present state of their current and past country's leaders or weather the country that they are living in will remain exploited and abused by the U.S. and Belgium or if it will finally gain it's freedom.
2.“The sting of a fly, the Congolese say, can launch the end of the world. How simply things begin.” (Orleanna: 317)
“You can’t just point to the one most terrible thing and wonder why it happened. This has been a whole terrible time, from the beginning of the drought that left so many without food, and then the night of the ants, to now, the worst tragedy of all. Each bad thing causes something worse. As Anatole says, if you look hard enough you can always see reasons, but you’ll go crazy if you think it’s all punishment for your sins. I see that plainly when I look at my parents. God doesn’t punish us. He just grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves.” (Leah: 327)
“Maybe I shouldn’t say so but it’s true: Leah is the cause of all our problems. It goes back to when she and Father commenced World War Three at our house. What a crazy mixed-up scene. Leah would rare up and talk back to Father straight to his face, and then, boy oh boy. The rest of us would duck and cover like you have to do whenever they drop the A-bomb. Leah always had the upper-most respect for Father, but after the hullabaloo in the church where they voted Father out, she just plumb stopped being polite.” (Rachel: 335)
These three quotes were very interesting to me because they showed three very different perspectives on how their problems started and most likely how Ruth May was allowed to die. Rachel staying true too herself blames it on her sister Leah. Where as Leah herself, says that you cannot just point out one individual event and give it a reason or try to find one. Orleanna interprets this as stemming from a more insignificant event that just domminoed it's way to live changing events.
3.“I only remember hearing a gulp and a sob and a scream all at once, the strangest cry, like a baby taking it’s first breath. We couldn’t tell where it came from, but strangely enough, we all looked up at the treetops. A nervous wind stirred the branches, but nothing more. Only silence fell down. It’s a very odd thing to recall, that we all looked up. Not one of us looked at Ruth May. I can’t say that Ruth May was even there with us, in that instant. Just for the moment it was as if she’d disappeared, and her voice was thrown into the trees. Then she returned to us, but all that was left of her was an awful silence. The voiceless empty skin of my baby sister sitting quietly on the ground, hugging herself.” (Leah: 363)
“BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH—He kindly stopped for me. I was not present at Ruth May’s birth but I have seen it now, because I saw each step of it played out in reverse at the end of her life. The closing parenthesis, at the end of the palindrome that that was Ruth May. Her final gulp of air as hungry as a baby’s first breath. That last howling scream, exactly like the first, and then at the end a fixed, steadfast moving backward out of this world. After the howl, wide-eyed silence without breath. Her bluish face creased with a pressure closing in, the near proximity of the other-than –life that crowds down around the edges of living. Her eyes closed up tightly, and her swollen lips clamped shut. Her spine curved, and her limbs drew in more and more tightly until she seemed impossibly small. While we watched without comprehension, she moved away to where none of us wanted to follow. Ruth May shrank back through the narrow passage between this brief fabric of light and all the rest of what there is for us: the long waiting. Now she will wait the rest of the time. It will be exactly as long as the time that passed before she was born.” (Adah: 365)
“She went out to the kitchen house, fired the stove, warmed a pan of water, them carried it back into the house and set it on the big dining table where Nelson had laid the body on a bedsheet. Mother bathed Ruth May with a washcloth as if she were a baby. I stood with my back to the wall, remembering too much of another time, as I watched her rub carefully under the chin and in the folds at the backs of the elbows and knees. In our house in Bethlehem I used to stand outside the bathroom door, where I could see the two of them in the mirror. Mother singing soft questions and kissing her answers into the tiny, outstretched palms. Adah and I were nine then, too old to be jealous of a baby, but still I wondered if she had ever loved me that much. With twins, she could only have loved each of us by half. And Adah was the one who required more of her.” (Leah: 369)
‘Throughout the time of loss and salvation, Bwanga had remained Ruth May’s most loyal playmate. Even that my father wouldn’t have known. I felt an unspeakable despair. He knew nothing about the children. Under his cupped hand Bwanga’s little bald head looked like an overripe avocado he was prepared to toss away. She stood wide-eyed and motionless. “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,” he repeated, and released her. “Mah-dah-may-I?” Bwanga asked. Several other children remembered this game and echoed: “Mah-dah-mey-I?” Their eyes left Father and came to rest on Ruth May inside the drenched cloud of netting on the table. They all picked up the refrain, asking again and again in a rising plea: Mother May I? And though they surely knew no permission would be granted, they kept up their soft, steady chant for a very long time in the pouring rain. Water clung to their eyelashes and streamed in runnels down their open faces. Their meager clothes, imposed on them by foreigners, clung to their thin chests and legs like a second skin finally ready to accept the shape of their bodies. The dust on our feet turned blood-colored and the sky grew very dark, while Father moved around the circle baptizing each child in turn, imploring the living progeny of Kilanga to walk forward into the light.” (Leah: 375)
These quotes all have to do with the death of Ruth May and how her family dealt with it. Leah described hearing a scream up from the branches of the trees and that they had all looked up at the sky, not one of them looked at Ruth May. This was interesting because in earlier chapters when Ruth May was very sick Nelson had given Ruth May a box in which to put her spirit into so that right before she died she could disappear to her special place of choice and she chose her place to be up in the trees as a green mamba and so she flew. Adah described her death in her backwards way, she said that she saw Ruth May's birth rather than death. And in this moment, Adah's character began to make a little more sense to me. She described the symmetry of how Ruth May would wait after death exactly as long as she had before birth. Orleanna had a calm attitude at the news, even though Ruth May had been Orleanna's favorite. Leah described how she doubted that Orleanna could never love her as much as Ruth May and that she wasn't Jealous. I think that maybe Orleanna loved Ruth May best because she felt that she had to. Orleanna mentioned early on a feeling of guilt about knowing inside her that she had to many children, before Ruth May was even in the picture. And from this guilt I believe Orleanna created a compromising love and care for Ruth May. Nathan remaining his own true self took advantage of his daughter’s death and exploited it to the best of his ability. Inspired by his lack of baptism of Ruth May he began baptizing each child he saw, in rainwater falling from the sky to the parched earth.
This quote seemed very significant to me because of the way it paralleled Orleanna's life and household with Eisenhower household and the global community. I think that Orleanna feels guilty about how much such insignificant things as her daughters birthday affected her and how little global issues such as the present state of their current and past country's leaders or weather the country that they are living in will remain exploited and abused by the U.S. and Belgium or if it will finally gain it's freedom.
2.“The sting of a fly, the Congolese say, can launch the end of the world. How simply things begin.” (Orleanna: 317)
“You can’t just point to the one most terrible thing and wonder why it happened. This has been a whole terrible time, from the beginning of the drought that left so many without food, and then the night of the ants, to now, the worst tragedy of all. Each bad thing causes something worse. As Anatole says, if you look hard enough you can always see reasons, but you’ll go crazy if you think it’s all punishment for your sins. I see that plainly when I look at my parents. God doesn’t punish us. He just grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves.” (Leah: 327)
“Maybe I shouldn’t say so but it’s true: Leah is the cause of all our problems. It goes back to when she and Father commenced World War Three at our house. What a crazy mixed-up scene. Leah would rare up and talk back to Father straight to his face, and then, boy oh boy. The rest of us would duck and cover like you have to do whenever they drop the A-bomb. Leah always had the upper-most respect for Father, but after the hullabaloo in the church where they voted Father out, she just plumb stopped being polite.” (Rachel: 335)
These three quotes were very interesting to me because they showed three very different perspectives on how their problems started and most likely how Ruth May was allowed to die. Rachel staying true too herself blames it on her sister Leah. Where as Leah herself, says that you cannot just point out one individual event and give it a reason or try to find one. Orleanna interprets this as stemming from a more insignificant event that just domminoed it's way to live changing events.
3.“I only remember hearing a gulp and a sob and a scream all at once, the strangest cry, like a baby taking it’s first breath. We couldn’t tell where it came from, but strangely enough, we all looked up at the treetops. A nervous wind stirred the branches, but nothing more. Only silence fell down. It’s a very odd thing to recall, that we all looked up. Not one of us looked at Ruth May. I can’t say that Ruth May was even there with us, in that instant. Just for the moment it was as if she’d disappeared, and her voice was thrown into the trees. Then she returned to us, but all that was left of her was an awful silence. The voiceless empty skin of my baby sister sitting quietly on the ground, hugging herself.” (Leah: 363)
“BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH—He kindly stopped for me. I was not present at Ruth May’s birth but I have seen it now, because I saw each step of it played out in reverse at the end of her life. The closing parenthesis, at the end of the palindrome that that was Ruth May. Her final gulp of air as hungry as a baby’s first breath. That last howling scream, exactly like the first, and then at the end a fixed, steadfast moving backward out of this world. After the howl, wide-eyed silence without breath. Her bluish face creased with a pressure closing in, the near proximity of the other-than –life that crowds down around the edges of living. Her eyes closed up tightly, and her swollen lips clamped shut. Her spine curved, and her limbs drew in more and more tightly until she seemed impossibly small. While we watched without comprehension, she moved away to where none of us wanted to follow. Ruth May shrank back through the narrow passage between this brief fabric of light and all the rest of what there is for us: the long waiting. Now she will wait the rest of the time. It will be exactly as long as the time that passed before she was born.” (Adah: 365)
“She went out to the kitchen house, fired the stove, warmed a pan of water, them carried it back into the house and set it on the big dining table where Nelson had laid the body on a bedsheet. Mother bathed Ruth May with a washcloth as if she were a baby. I stood with my back to the wall, remembering too much of another time, as I watched her rub carefully under the chin and in the folds at the backs of the elbows and knees. In our house in Bethlehem I used to stand outside the bathroom door, where I could see the two of them in the mirror. Mother singing soft questions and kissing her answers into the tiny, outstretched palms. Adah and I were nine then, too old to be jealous of a baby, but still I wondered if she had ever loved me that much. With twins, she could only have loved each of us by half. And Adah was the one who required more of her.” (Leah: 369)
‘Throughout the time of loss and salvation, Bwanga had remained Ruth May’s most loyal playmate. Even that my father wouldn’t have known. I felt an unspeakable despair. He knew nothing about the children. Under his cupped hand Bwanga’s little bald head looked like an overripe avocado he was prepared to toss away. She stood wide-eyed and motionless. “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,” he repeated, and released her. “Mah-dah-may-I?” Bwanga asked. Several other children remembered this game and echoed: “Mah-dah-mey-I?” Their eyes left Father and came to rest on Ruth May inside the drenched cloud of netting on the table. They all picked up the refrain, asking again and again in a rising plea: Mother May I? And though they surely knew no permission would be granted, they kept up their soft, steady chant for a very long time in the pouring rain. Water clung to their eyelashes and streamed in runnels down their open faces. Their meager clothes, imposed on them by foreigners, clung to their thin chests and legs like a second skin finally ready to accept the shape of their bodies. The dust on our feet turned blood-colored and the sky grew very dark, while Father moved around the circle baptizing each child in turn, imploring the living progeny of Kilanga to walk forward into the light.” (Leah: 375)
These quotes all have to do with the death of Ruth May and how her family dealt with it. Leah described hearing a scream up from the branches of the trees and that they had all looked up at the sky, not one of them looked at Ruth May. This was interesting because in earlier chapters when Ruth May was very sick Nelson had given Ruth May a box in which to put her spirit into so that right before she died she could disappear to her special place of choice and she chose her place to be up in the trees as a green mamba and so she flew. Adah described her death in her backwards way, she said that she saw Ruth May's birth rather than death. And in this moment, Adah's character began to make a little more sense to me. She described the symmetry of how Ruth May would wait after death exactly as long as she had before birth. Orleanna had a calm attitude at the news, even though Ruth May had been Orleanna's favorite. Leah described how she doubted that Orleanna could never love her as much as Ruth May and that she wasn't Jealous. I think that maybe Orleanna loved Ruth May best because she felt that she had to. Orleanna mentioned early on a feeling of guilt about knowing inside her that she had to many children, before Ruth May was even in the picture. And from this guilt I believe Orleanna created a compromising love and care for Ruth May. Nathan remaining his own true self took advantage of his daughter’s death and exploited it to the best of his ability. Inspired by his lack of baptism of Ruth May he began baptizing each child he saw, in rainwater falling from the sky to the parched earth.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Lit circle #2 Response
I thought that this literature circle was much better than our last one. We were able to fully dive into our conversations and analysis of the book. We had more of an idea of what to discuss and how to do because we had previous experience. I also felt that our class discussion was much more informative and had more breadth. This was because each group was able to pick their best conversations or topics and expand on them with the rest of the class where as last lit circle we just wrote our significant points up on the board which made it more difficult to build off of each others points.
In our Literature circle we mainly discussed how the four girls were changed throughout this section. Adah felt even more insignificant and worthless than before. She felt this way when her family abandoned her to the soldier ants. No one seemed to care about her and in her crippled state she had trouble caring for herself as well. Rachel has changed significantly as well. It seems that the Congo is slowly but surly destroying her spirit. While discussing this as a class we found that the shattering of her mirror was a great metaphor for the shattering of her beautiful life. In this section Rachel is given the opportunity of change and needs to learn to depend on herself not only on herself but, like brothers fowls said, to rely on the Congo. Leah begins to peel away from her father, and has currently stuck herself on Anatole. She follows him now, and feel love towards him. Leah is also beginning to feel a great sense of guilt about Adah. She feels that she abandoned her in the whom, in the jungle(for the lion), and once again to the soldier ants. Ruth May is changing too. Her sickness took away her vitality and spirit. She is sluggish and cares little about anything anymore. Her strong spirit and out-going nature have both shriveled away.
In our Literature circle we mainly discussed how the four girls were changed throughout this section. Adah felt even more insignificant and worthless than before. She felt this way when her family abandoned her to the soldier ants. No one seemed to care about her and in her crippled state she had trouble caring for herself as well. Rachel has changed significantly as well. It seems that the Congo is slowly but surly destroying her spirit. While discussing this as a class we found that the shattering of her mirror was a great metaphor for the shattering of her beautiful life. In this section Rachel is given the opportunity of change and needs to learn to depend on herself not only on herself but, like brothers fowls said, to rely on the Congo. Leah begins to peel away from her father, and has currently stuck herself on Anatole. She follows him now, and feel love towards him. Leah is also beginning to feel a great sense of guilt about Adah. She feels that she abandoned her in the whom, in the jungle(for the lion), and once again to the soldier ants. Ruth May is changing too. Her sickness took away her vitality and spirit. She is sluggish and cares little about anything anymore. Her strong spirit and out-going nature have both shriveled away.
Congolese History
While the Belgians were dominating the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo was a French colony. It received independence in 1960 and as a result the former French region became the Democratic Republic of the Congo separate from the Republic of Congo. After a quarter century of Marxism, in 1990 a democratic government was in placed in 1992. A civil war began in 1997 that restored the former President, Denis Sassou Nguesso. Formerly the Belgian colony of the Belgian Congo, the country's post-independence name was the Republic of the Congo until August 1, 1964, when its name was changed to Democratic Republic of the Congo (to alleviate confusion from the other Republic of Congo). On October 27, 1971, President Mobutu Sese Seko renamed the country Zaire. Mobutu's was overthrown in 1997 and after the country was renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In 1955 the Belgian professor Antoin van Bilsen published a proposal for a thirty-year plan for Congolese independence. The Congolese responded with needs of political, economic, and social liberation, provoking protests & riots in the Congo. In 1960 Belgium finally granted Congo its independence and Patrice Lumumba was made prime minister, with Joseph Kasavubu as president. That same year under the direction of Moise Tshombe, Katanga attempted to become independent. Belgium supported Tshombe’s action. In 1965 Joseph Mobutu put on an overthrow. A bodyguard assassinated Kabila and his son, Joseph, replaced him. Rwanda & Uganda agreed to pull their troops back. But, later the UN stated that the rebel forces were prolonging a withdrawal in order to continue conflict & exploitation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s natural resources.
In 2002 Kabila and his government agreed to share power with Ugandan rebels however the Rwandan rebels reject the idea. But, the DRC got Rwanda and Uganda to both agree on withdrawing troops. Then in 2003 Kabila signed a constitution to put a temporary government into role with leaders of main former rebel groups as vice-presidents. In 2005 the parliament took in a new constitution. In a vote with a voter turnout of 60%, the Congolese people approved the new constitution. Latest in 2006 the constitution was signed by President Kabila, opening up for the elections that occurred in the middle of 2006.
In 1955 the Belgian professor Antoin van Bilsen published a proposal for a thirty-year plan for Congolese independence. The Congolese responded with needs of political, economic, and social liberation, provoking protests & riots in the Congo. In 1960 Belgium finally granted Congo its independence and Patrice Lumumba was made prime minister, with Joseph Kasavubu as president. That same year under the direction of Moise Tshombe, Katanga attempted to become independent. Belgium supported Tshombe’s action. In 1965 Joseph Mobutu put on an overthrow. A bodyguard assassinated Kabila and his son, Joseph, replaced him. Rwanda & Uganda agreed to pull their troops back. But, later the UN stated that the rebel forces were prolonging a withdrawal in order to continue conflict & exploitation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s natural resources.
In 2002 Kabila and his government agreed to share power with Ugandan rebels however the Rwandan rebels reject the idea. But, the DRC got Rwanda and Uganda to both agree on withdrawing troops. Then in 2003 Kabila signed a constitution to put a temporary government into role with leaders of main former rebel groups as vice-presidents. In 2005 the parliament took in a new constitution. In a vote with a voter turnout of 60%, the Congolese people approved the new constitution. Latest in 2006 the constitution was signed by President Kabila, opening up for the elections that occurred in the middle of 2006.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Essential Question
Many people believe that it is the simple things in life that make us the happiest. Flowers, the sun, long walks in nature. Many of the most common things that cheer us up seem to be the most natural. Very few people will say that playing on the computer or watching T.V. make them into the happy people that they are. So why do we pull away from instincts and sit in front of a still screen for hours? It is scientifically proven that children who grow up watching T.V. have less intellect or mental development. While a day at the beach provides you with a well rounded atmosphere and total stimulus, T.V.gives you very little, it comes without feeling, smell or taste. But, perhaps we are jumping to a conclusion too fast. I recently read an article in which video games were argued to in fact have a very positive affect on a child's motor skills and problem solving abilities, so, I wonder, can video games help provide for a well-developed child and an ultimately happy person? It seems like the older the person, the more flowers heal. To some flowers can tell the love some does or does not feel for you. In younger generations we lean our tendeces tword the healing power of T.V. and a bucket of butter drenched pop corn. We are far more advanced in science and technology than our former generations however, are we more advanced in the art of happiness. Are we choosing the right path to happiness or are we choosing technological advances over happiness?
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Essential Question
Since my essential question for this semester is: What is happiness? I thought it only approriate to interview someone on this topic. I like this question for the sake of interviewing because it is easy to ask, it applies to everyliving thing. The interview goes basically as follows (between myself and my mom):
Me: What is happiness to you?
Mom: Happiness is...being satisfied with what you have, enjoying what you do everyday, and loving the people that are in your life, and feeling good about yourself.
Me: Does it mean anything else?
Mom: Liking the person that you are I guess, it's also enjoying good health!
Me: What do you do that makes you happy?
Mom: What makes me happy?; Read, shop, well, definatley spending time with my kids and husband.
Me: Why do these things make you happy?
Mom: Because all those things are fun and interesting.
Me: Can you elaborate?, I mean, out of everything in the world you could do, those are the one's that come to your mind as making you happy, why?
Mom: Because they're simple and they're fun, I mean, I never have trouble finding something to read but, going sky diving or flying a plane might make me happy but, it's just to hard to do these things, sometimes impossible.
Me: Why is happiness important?
Mom: It's what makes life worth living.
Me: How can you make others be happy?
Mom: Be nice.
Me: What is happiness to you?
Mom: Happiness is...being satisfied with what you have, enjoying what you do everyday, and loving the people that are in your life, and feeling good about yourself.
Me: Does it mean anything else?
Mom: Liking the person that you are I guess, it's also enjoying good health!
Me: What do you do that makes you happy?
Mom: What makes me happy?; Read, shop, well, definatley spending time with my kids and husband.
Me: Why do these things make you happy?
Mom: Because all those things are fun and interesting.
Me: Can you elaborate?, I mean, out of everything in the world you could do, those are the one's that come to your mind as making you happy, why?
Mom: Because they're simple and they're fun, I mean, I never have trouble finding something to read but, going sky diving or flying a plane might make me happy but, it's just to hard to do these things, sometimes impossible.
Me: Why is happiness important?
Mom: It's what makes life worth living.
Me: How can you make others be happy?
Mom: Be nice.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Essential Question
I asked someone what it was that made them happiest. They responded that it was spending time with their family. For me this probably wouldn't be my first response. So, why the difference? Why such a discrepancy between us two people? In my last response to my essential question I addressed the controversy between nature and nurture and related it to thePoisonwood bible. Nurture was proven to be quite true in shaping some one's well being, so does this mean that everyone in the world is born in the same realm of happiness and then what ever environment we are then put into shapes us into our unique beings? Well, this could be an explanation for my friend and my own differences, however it seems hard to believe that every human being is born the same. Scientific research seems to fall contrary to nurture being god's only hand in this. Genes, these seem to produce more than just a person's physical self. Genes definately play a part in determining who we are. Chronic depresion is a known trait carried through genetics, so could euphoria be carried to us in this very same way? Is happiness determined by and only by our genetic luck? Well, I did a little research and it said that people born in Switzerland are happiest in general and people born in (some country) in Africa are the least so, perhaps where you are born plays some role. Now, I am not suggesting that the geographical location of your birth will determine your overall personality and happiness but, it is my opinion that the political position of your country plays a large role in weather or not you are a happy person. If a country is surpressed and it's citizens are obused then how could some one possibly manage to be as happy as a person who lives in a free and loving country? If children are forced to hide and seek shelter in holes in the ground so that they won't be recruted and forced to kill others than how could they possibly bear a smile? I know that put in that situation, I would be unable. The environment that a person is in plays just as large a role as Genetics.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Essential Question
Right now in The PoisonWood Bible I am reading about Orleanna and how she met Nathan and furthermore came to be the beaten down and rather unhappy person that she now is which made reflect on my essential question; what is happiness. It seems that Orleanna was a blissfull young woman with the world at her feet until she met Nathan. He was once also a happy young person until he was drafted to war where in some very unfortunate insidents he came upon a shower of guilt for the loss of his comrads. This guilt never left him and soon found it's way to Orleanna. She became as witherd and haunted as Nathan himself. She became more and more depressed and suppressed by Nathan. Her life style declined with the birth of each of her four daughters. She felt a certain amount of guilt for bringing these girls into the world. She talked about how she felt a need to defend her daughters against Nathan, but knew that by hurting Nathan it would just end up reflecting off him and hurting her girls. Orleanna has an inward struggle to find her own happiness and leave Nathan however; she is weighed down by an unshakable guilt and perhaps reliance on Nathan. Her daughters, though never fully happy are on a steady decline. The family seems to be breaking and at the same time, each individual looks as though they are finding their selves, separate from each other and most of all, separate from Nathan. Finding themselves, I believe, will lead to an even better place for all of them.
Lit Circle #2: Lexicographer
A bu: Well then/more or less/okay, fine
Ayi: The independence
Bakala: A hot pepper, a bumpy potato, and the male sexual organ.
Bakala mpandi: A good strong man
Baka veh: We don’t pay that.
Bambula
Bandika: Depending upon pronunciation means: To kill someone, to pinch back a plant, or to deflower a virgin.
Bandu: The littlest one on the bottom/the reason for everything(Ruth May's nickname)
Bangala: Depending on pronunciation means: Something precious and dear or the Poisonwood tree.
Batiza: Depending on pronunciation means: Baptism or else, to terrify.
Baza: Twins
Beene-beene: Anatole’s name for Leah, meaning: as true as truth can be.
Benduka: Crooked Walker/The giraffe with a Z-shaped crook in its neck. Also refers to, a fast-flying bird, the swallow with curved wings who darts crookedly quick through trees near the river.
Bikinda: Spirits of the dead.
Bilala: The wailing for the dead.
E-e: A term of agreement
Fyata: No money
Gree-grees: Evil eye fetishes that people wear around their necks to ward off evil curses and the like
Hantu: A place or time
Kakakaka: An infectious disease in which you defecate to death.
Kibaazu: To have a curse put on you
Kintu: All things besides man: animals, stones, and bottles etcetera.
Kukwela: Wife?
Kuntu: A quality of being: beautiful, hideous, lame, etcetera.
Lea: Nothing much
Leba: Fig Tree
Mangwansi: A type of bean.
Mbote: Hello/Goodbye
Muntu: Man/people (living or dead, born or not)
Muteete: A type of grass used as a form of dental hygiene
Mv’ula: A pale white termite that comes out after a rain
Mvundla: Rabbit
Ngangas: Evil eye fetishes
Nkisis: Evil eye fetishes that people wear around their necks to ward off evil curses and the like.
Nommo: The force that makes things live as what they are: man, animal, tree, etcetera. Also, word.
Nsongonya: Hoards of soldier ants that eat people and animals alive.
Ntu: (root) for all that is being here.
Pangne: A cloth wrap that the Congoles women wear.
Sala Mbote:
Umvundla: Jungle rabbit
Wenda Mbote:
1.“Mbote a-akento akwa Kilango. Benzika kooko.” this means:“Hey there, ladies of Kilanga. Why don’t you cut me some slack for a change.” (More or less)
2.Bi la ye bandu: this means: Why, why, why (more or less)
3.Ssap ot tuoba: this means:
4.Kituba, Lingala, Bembe, Kunyi, Vili, Ndingi, and the bleeding talking drums: Types of language or communication.
5.Il trompe son monde. this means: A bluff or front (in french)
6.Piggly Wiggly. This means: A market is or a supermarket usualy found in the Eastern half of the United States in Midwest, Southeast and East Coast regions.
7.Cumber, this means: to hamper or burden.
8.Presentiment: a knowledge of an usually negative event before it's occurence
9.Consecrate, this means: To bless or make holy.
10.Gunwale, this means:the top edge of a ship’s sides that forms a ledge.
Ayi: The independence
Bakala: A hot pepper, a bumpy potato, and the male sexual organ.
Bakala mpandi: A good strong man
Baka veh: We don’t pay that.
Bambula
Bandika: Depending upon pronunciation means: To kill someone, to pinch back a plant, or to deflower a virgin.
Bandu: The littlest one on the bottom/the reason for everything(Ruth May's nickname)
Bangala: Depending on pronunciation means: Something precious and dear or the Poisonwood tree.
Batiza: Depending on pronunciation means: Baptism or else, to terrify.
Baza: Twins
Beene-beene: Anatole’s name for Leah, meaning: as true as truth can be.
Benduka: Crooked Walker/The giraffe with a Z-shaped crook in its neck. Also refers to, a fast-flying bird, the swallow with curved wings who darts crookedly quick through trees near the river.
Bikinda: Spirits of the dead.
Bilala: The wailing for the dead.
E-e: A term of agreement
Fyata: No money
Gree-grees: Evil eye fetishes that people wear around their necks to ward off evil curses and the like
Hantu: A place or time
Kakakaka: An infectious disease in which you defecate to death.
Kibaazu: To have a curse put on you
Kintu: All things besides man: animals, stones, and bottles etcetera.
Kukwela: Wife?
Kuntu: A quality of being: beautiful, hideous, lame, etcetera.
Lea: Nothing much
Leba: Fig Tree
Mangwansi: A type of bean.
Mbote: Hello/Goodbye
Muntu: Man/people (living or dead, born or not)
Muteete: A type of grass used as a form of dental hygiene
Mv’ula: A pale white termite that comes out after a rain
Mvundla: Rabbit
Ngangas: Evil eye fetishes
Nkisis: Evil eye fetishes that people wear around their necks to ward off evil curses and the like.
Nommo: The force that makes things live as what they are: man, animal, tree, etcetera. Also, word.
Nsongonya: Hoards of soldier ants that eat people and animals alive.
Ntu: (root) for all that is being here.
Pangne: A cloth wrap that the Congoles women wear.
Sala Mbote:
Umvundla: Jungle rabbit
Wenda Mbote:
1.“Mbote a-akento akwa Kilango. Benzika kooko.” this means:“Hey there, ladies of Kilanga. Why don’t you cut me some slack for a change.” (More or less)
2.Bi la ye bandu: this means: Why, why, why (more or less)
3.Ssap ot tuoba: this means:
4.Kituba, Lingala, Bembe, Kunyi, Vili, Ndingi, and the bleeding talking drums: Types of language or communication.
5.Il trompe son monde. this means: A bluff or front (in french)
6.Piggly Wiggly. This means: A market is or a supermarket usualy found in the Eastern half of the United States in Midwest, Southeast and East Coast regions.
7.Cumber, this means: to hamper or burden.
8.Presentiment: a knowledge of an usually negative event before it's occurence
9.Consecrate, this means: To bless or make holy.
10.Gunwale, this means:the top edge of a ship’s sides that forms a ledge.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Lit Circle Response #1
I found our first literature circle to be very informative and beneficial. I enjoyed discussing the book especially in our specialty groups because we all had different information and could share what we found with one another. This allowed me to then transfer even more information to our large groups where we were allowed to deepen our discussion of The Poisonwood Bible. I got to really take a second look at the characters, Orleanna in particular. She seems to be even more vulnerable than I last thought. She crumbles under Nathan's iron fist causing her to feel insignificant. She also struggles with caring for her daughters. I think that she feels under appreciated and very much unloved. Orleanna does not seem to be the only character with problems. Nathan Price her husband seems to not only be the cause of Orleanna's problems but also of his own. Guilt seems like a driving force in their personal struggles and in their relationships. I think that guilt is going to become more and more a part of this book.
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