Each of the Price sisters exhibits radically different mindsets regarding their religious faith allowing Kingsolver to differentiate between each of the girls. Rachel, the oldest, proves herself to be the stereotypical teenage girl. Obsessed with her appearance, materialism, and petty matters, Rachel simply does not have room for religion. Similar to her father, Rachel is an extremely selfish and arrogant human being. However, unlike Rachel, the second Price sister, Leah, has a strong religious faith and accepts her father’s believes. Leah is naïve in her belief that her father has “seen about everything” (42). However, as life in the Congo takes its course, her initial fate spirals downward dwindling into close to nothing. While her fate may …show more content…
Nathan Price represents a historical attitude. The incidents of the characters actually unveil the much larger incidents of the world. Price’s wife and daughters reveal heavy opinions regarding religion, technology, health, politics and agriculture. The women’s ideas carry these beliefs into the developing world in an arrogant way. Their arrogance is representative of the arrogance of the average people in America. We didn’t make the awful decisions our government imposed on Africa. We also didn’t call for the assassination of Lumumba. We inherit these decisions and are forced to carry them as a part of who we are. Just like the wife and daughters of Nathan Price, we are the innocent bystanders: the captive witnesses of the world. His daughters and wife got pulled into this mess. It’s not his story. It’s theirs. The lack of dimension Kingsolver gives Nathan Pierce dramatically develops her main purpose in writing this book. She wants to magnify his faults making the only picture of Nathan Price the same as the one-dimensional picture the people of the village see. His wife and daughters unveil plenty of information to formulate an adequate explanation for his beliefs and behaviors. When it is finally revealed that Nathan Price has an enormous burden of guilt from his participation in World War II, the reader finally gains insight on where the extreme evangelicalism is coming from. When his company died in the Bataan Death March, Nathan Price felt like a failure. He knew he should have died with them. This feeling causes Nathan to be very hard on himself and as a result, very hard on his daughters as
Lumumba plays an important role in not only the Congo, but also within the Price family. As a part of the Congo, Lumumba symbolizes hope for the people under oppression, as one character points out, “Reverend, I do not think the people here are looking for your kind of salvation. I think they are looking for Patrice Lumumba, the new soul of Africa,” (122). This shows that people didn’t want CHristianity imposed on them but rather they were looking for a leader that had their best interests at heart. This also shows what an important role Lumumba played in the Congo and within the Congolese people.
As a soldier stationed in the Philippines, Nathan ran away from the fray when he was wounded by piece of shrapnel. While in hiding, his unit would meet their death in the infamous Bataan Death March. Nathan is the only one to in his unit to survive. This is root of his guilt and the influence of his actions, for the rest of the story. Nathan, forever guilty of his cowardice, is permanently scarred. “Hounded by what happened in a Philippine Jungle and the ghosts of a thousand men who didn’t escape it, his steadfast disdain for cowardice turned to obsession” (Kingsolver,96) Nathan even receives the Purple Heart for “surviving” the war, the medal isn't for heroism or bravery, its for being wounded. It’s a medal of failure, that further provokes Nathan’s shame. After the war is when Nathan began his strict devotion Christianity, what the reader witnesses throughout the story. This is what leads him to Kilanga, willingly putting his family in danger to spread the name of the lord, in hope of redemption. Nathan’s guilt at having escaped the Bataan death march has twisted his belief in God, he sees God as one who punishes and rewards strictly on the basis of merit. He lives trying to earn his, by pushing the teaching of Christianity to the Congolese. Nathan masks his cowardice using a sort of “divine right”. He uses god to justify every decision he makes, disregarding anyone elses opinion. “father needs permission only from the Saviour"
Sierra Leone has been involved in a humungous amount of absurd human rights violations since 1991 when the civil war erupted. This detailed paper on the book, A Long Way Gone, set in Sierra Leone, will create interest by summarizing the memoir through descriptive examples and text on symbolism and imagery. The author of this memoir A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is Ishmael Beah, it's difficult to believe that this is a true and harsh story. You will be learning about Ishmael's resilience and the horrible struggles he faced as a child soldier, while somehow continuing to have hope. Ishmael Beah, 12 at the beginning of this memoir, unexpectedly gets recruited into a time consuming war over blood diamonds, against the rebels as a young child. Ishmael is at a loss, since with his own eyes he viewed not only his loving family, but his whole village as it was horrifically torn down by the dangerous rebels. Ishmael is not physically lonely during the book, but he is emotionally
Both his wife and children are under the impression that he was rewarded for an act of heroism, and that his goal of saving the Congolese is driven by his selflessness. What they later discover explains quite a lot: Nathan was not rewarded for being a war hero, but for simply escaping the Bataan Death March, a brutal situation for both the American and Filipino armies in which “starving and sick troops were forced to walk over sixty miles to the prisoner of war camp” (“Bataan”) and “were forced to endure countless atrocities” (Williams and Showalter 155). Because Nathan was the only one of his company to survive, he began to see himself as a coward when he returned home and decided to never again abandon a dangerous situation. Orleanna described the shift in Nathan’s personality as a “suspicion of his own cowardice from which he could never recover” (Kingsolver 197). The idea that their father was a war hero drove each of the daughters to be understanding of his actions because they saw that he was capable of doing great things and helping people in miraculous ways. When they realized that he was not rewarded for being extraordinary, it became more and more difficult for them to view him as a role model. By contrasting both views of Nathan, Kingsolver gave the reader a choice to determine how to interpret his
Under Belgian rule, the Congo became restless, similar to how Leah became rebellious under her father. In response to this unrest, the Belgians gave the Congolese independence, but this caused the Congo to throw off white influences and elect Patrice Lumumba, just as Nathan gave Leah her independence and Leah all but abandoned her father’s God and married an African. Under Lumumba, the Congo became Independent and valued itself, like the marriage between Anatole and Leah brought about a sense of love and dedication and independence, but an outsider imprisoned and killed Lumumba for his pro-African ideas and his refusal to give Congolese resources to outside forces, mirrored by Anatole’s imprisonment for his revolutionary, pro-Independence thoughts. Despite Lumumba’s death, the Congo stays loyal to him and resists the outsider, similarly to how Leah stays unwaveringly dedicated to Anatole despite his
Kingsolver and Coleridge both create Nathan Price and The Mariner to do crazy things to help redeem them within the name of Jesus Christ. Nathan Price is a Southern Baptist Preacher who feels the need to redeem his name after abandoning his men in the army back in World War II. His yearning for his redemption caused him to lose all his family. Although Coleridge has the Mariner tell his story to redeem himself and to show the wrong he has done. The mariner is redeemed when accepted Christianity back in his
The movie “Lumumba” displays the ironic struggle that came with newfound independence in postcolonial Congo, specifically in the year 1960. It follows the story of Patrice Lumumba, an educated African man with a craving for independence. Early in the movie, Lumumba is arrested for promoting dissent, but is soon released to attend the “round table” meeting in which he is able to create a deal that would allow for the Congo to finally be independent from Belgian rule. Lumumba is elected as prime minister and is quickly thrown into governing a postcolonial state with a complete lack of order. He begins with a large range of supporters and high hopes for the state’s success without being under Belgian control. The ways in which the state had been run under colonialism, which created the lack of a viable economy, a nonexistent nationalism among the Congolese people, and violent race relations derived from the struggle for power, all set Lumumba up to ultimately fail as a postcolonial leader through the struggle to build a state, create a sense of nationalism, and find a general unity among the Congolese people.
A large sacrifice that she makes is the surrender of a “normal” American life that includes health and comfort. This surrender illustrates how Leah values her political activism over the comfort of an ill-intentioned capitalistic country. She sees her work with the African people and making
This theme is self-evident in the plot development of this novel. From the development of the theme of western cultural arrogance numerous other themes can also be drawn. In this novel western cultural arrogance can be described as the arrogance of the western countries with respect to the cultures of the Congolese. This theme is portrayed throughout the novel with the characters actions towards the Congolese. Nathan Price, the dad, is the main example of the theme of western cultural arrogance with his actions and how he views the Africans religious beliefs.
This quote shows how Leah starts to doubt her fathers ways, she is not flat-out disobeying him but she does not believe that his ideas are true. Leah wants to be independent, but it’s hard for her to change because she has been dependent on her father her entire life. In this quote Leah shows the reader how much she has changed,
In a world full of blame and lack of accountability, an individual’s role in injustice needs to be questioned. In the early 1960’s, after many years under Belgian rule, the Congolese people formed an uprising and gained independance. However, the Congo was ill prepared for the organization that independence demanded. The Soviet Union offered aid to the Prime Minister of the Congo. Since this was during the Cold War, the United States retaliated and supported a coup led by Colonel Joseph Mobutu. Mobutu ruled with an iron fist, resulting in pain and oppression of the Congolese. Looking back on history, it is easy to see who was at fault. But at the time, it was not easy to identify blame, especially for the Americans. Barbara Kingsolver wrote about the Congo’s trials much later in 1991. She used a narration from baptist missionary family to symbolize the different kinds of guilt Americans share. In Anne M. Austenfield’s narrative journal, she described Kingsolver’s ability to use, "several character-focalizers whose limited perspectives project highly subjective views of history" (Austenfeld). This technique allowed for Kingsolver to not only produce a more reliable account of what occurred, but to depict her desired theme and message. Kingsolver, in her novel The Poisonwood Bible, uses a political allegory to explore the different notions of guilt through the limited perspectives of her characters.
1909, over one hundred years ago, was the death of King Leopold of Belgium the sole owner of the Congo. Even years after he has left this earth and is no longer in the reign, the long-lasting effects he has had on the people and the land has forever changed the Congo. The memories left behind from the atrocities that occurred and the diminished resources due to extreme exploitation has prompted the author Adam Hochschild to write the novel, King Leopold’s Ghost. Using an Afrocentric point of view Hochschild describes how the events that took place under Leopold’s orders were acts of true terror and inhumanity.
Nathan Drum is the type of person everybody should strive to be, and although he stumbles, he gets back up again soon after. Nathan reacts to Ariel’s death the calmest of the family members. Yet we hear him ask, “Why Ariel? Why not me? The sins are mine. Why Punish her? Or Ruth?” (191). Even when faced with the death of a loved one, he does not question his faith. He may ask why God did something as bad as taking his only daughter instead of himself, the one that committed the crimes of war, but will not denounce God. Nathan’s faith that everything is going to be alright in the end is incredible to me. The Sunday after Ariel’s death shows just how incredible God’s power is. Now even though Nathan did not give a sermon at every church, it took a lot of guts and immense trust for him to preach in one of these churches. After having the darkest moment in his life, he comes out and gives one of the best sermons I have ever seen.
“Corruption, improper and usually unlawful conduct intended to secure a benefit for oneself or another its forms include bribery, extortion, and the misuse of inside information. It exists where there is community indifference or a lack of enforcement policies.”(Encyclopedia Britannica). Today political Corruption in all forms exists in every country in the world. In some countries it is more prominent then in others, but no matter where you go it still occurs. Recently in mid 2013 some political corruption was brought to light in New York. “Since 2007, state senators have been more likely to be arrested then to lose their seats in a general election,” (New York Public Interest Research group). In April of 2013 New York State
Magona use perspective to humanize the community of Guguletu even though blacks were moved there against their will. The imagery of the community gives a sense of value, “the people there, a well-knit community. Knowing each other: knowing all the children” (33). This quote humanizes the community, that the people in these townships are humans too and their lives are just as valuable. Irony and perspective is used to humanized Mxolisi during his time in jail, “I do not understand why it is that the government is giving him so much now when it has given him nothing at all, all his life” (3). The irony of this quote is equivalent to the injustice black South Africans had to face from the day they were born. Mxolisi was invisible before Amy’s murder, now he is visible to the government because it enforces the system of white supremacy. Mandisa’s perspective of the conditions her son is living in illustrates what apartheid is like for the whole community. Magona humanizes Mandisa as “a mother, with a mother’s heart” (3), she feels the hurt of Amy’s mother as her own because she is a human with emotions and sympathy. Mandisa’s perspective on the death of Amy symbolizes the humanism in her and her son, the way she feels sadness for the Biehls even though her own son killed Amy, shows she is human.