The Conflict Of Nathan 's Story

He casually reveals the flaws in Nathan’s religious knowledge, while also pointing out that Nathan only follows select parts of the text. Nathan preaches and uses the parts of the Bible that benefit him and his values, while ignoring the parts that don’t suit him and his sins. When the men discuss the passage of Paul and Silas, Fowles points out that perhaps the men listened to the jailer about his conflicted feelings of this new religion that they had sprung upon him. If that is truly what the passage meant, ironically, Nathan does the exact opposite in his teachings. Nathan is offended by anyone that challenges his religion and immediately believes them to be condemned. During the battle of the verses, Fowles also highlights how Nathan believes himself to be better than the locals by quoting Romans 12:3, “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought for as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we, being many, are one body in Christ and everyone, members one of another”. Fowles then goes on to quote Romans 12:10 that tells of how everyone has their own gift and they should use it humbly and respect other for their gift. Through those verses, Fowles is able to pick on Nathan's flaws without directly saying it, which gives hope to the women, because it is possible to stand up to Nathan and

Nathan’s motives in the novel are to change the religious traditions of the Congolese people and replace them with his views on what religion should be. Nathan is the reason all the Prices were dragged to this place. He feels that he can fix these people, which is an example of western cultural arrogance. While Nathan is the driving force for this theme, all the Prices are guilty of cultural arrogance in this novel. Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May all portray that their coming to Africa is meant to bring a superior way of life to the Congolese.

All families have conflicts, and the Price family is no exception. Within the story there is an overriding conflict regarding the Price women‘s opposition to the move to Africa. Beyond this, Nathan has many other conflicts with each of his daughters. Leah and her father had a very different relationship than the other three Price daughters. Leah is the only daughter that wholeheartedly supports her father completely. As the story moves on she is faced with the harsh realities of daily life in the Congo, and begins to see her Fathers faults. She soon wants to be her own person, and not be controlled by her father. The major parent/child conflict arises when Nathan does not recognize his daughter’s

Nathan Landeu is a Jewish man living in America with Sophie, very vulnerable young women. Nathan takes advantage of Sophie knowing that she needs him and will always love him. Towards the end of the book Stingo learns that Nathan suffers from a mental disease called schizophrenia. This disease causes voices in his head and him to act like a demon is possessing all of his thoughts. During world War 2 he was not allowed to join the military because of his mental disease, this made him sit back and watch thousands of people of his race die and actually made his disease even worse. In the book Stingo says “He was by now deathly afraid of Nathan and he pinned hungrily to be able to appeal to the police- for protection, if nothing else” (Styron 547). This is explaining to the audience that Nathan is a dangerous man and World war 2 has completely changed his state of mind.

how Nathan’s neglect of his family affected Orleanna greatly. “ For six years, from age nineteen

explains what it was like before she stopped listening to Nathan: “Feared Him, loved Him,

Nathan is the center of pain for the Price family. First, he forces them to leave their luxurious home in Bethlehem, Georgia, and move all the way to the Congo, isolated from their modern society. All four of the children are deprived from a proper education, and the entire family is restricted

Throughout the novel, Nathan exhibits cruelty towards his family and the villagers. Cruelty is a direct antonym of Love. Looking back to the Bible, Paul states in a letter to the: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love ( New International Version, 1 Corinthians 13:13).” While Nathan may be spreading faith and hope, because of his cruelty, he is certainly not showing love, which according to scripture is the most important. Instead of loving his wife Orleanna, Nathan rebukes her many times for no reason and even acts out in physical cruelty by roughly batting Orleanna away as she tried to nurse his wounds. Nathan’s actions are again hypocritical and go directly against the Bible says. Paul, in another letter, writes “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (Ephesians 5:25). Ultimately Nathan is not able to convince any of the villagers to be baptized because he has not showed love and therefore not God to them. John, another apostle, states to a church that is struggling with false prophets: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love”(1 John 4:8). One may conclude from these verses that even though Nathan Price may have some knowledge of the Bible, he truly does not know God,

With this in mind, it is odd that Leah concedes a fault in her father due to the garden. While she tries to justify all of his other actions, she realizes that “father has already bent his will to Africa by remaking his garden in mounds, the way they do here,” (78). This is the first instance where Leah realizes her father’s mortality and unawareness, that eventually manifests into her rejection of her father. It shows how Leah isn’t subject to an endless devotion towards her father who represented god. Instead she actively seeks out righteousness and justice, demonstrated by how she recognizes that bending to the will of the Africa is the right way to do things in the Congo, while Nathan tries to disregard this significance by viewing the situation as something that should be endured for god. He claimed that god “ doesn’t deliver us out of our hardships but through them.” (78). Nathan doesn’t see conforming to the Congo as practical and the right way to grow crops, he takes this situation as something he must tolerate while in the Congo. This not only shows how the two characters respond to change, it also demonstrates how Nathan believes he is tolerating the hardship of god, instead of being shaped by the Congo, which is another instance of his

During the beginning of the Price family’s arrival at the Congo, the family settles in an unfamiliar land of Kilanga and Nathan is being portrayed as the physical representation of the American perspective on the African people by creating conflict. Since the family is from Georgia, the surroundings and the atmosphere of

It wasn’t until Nathan started going to W.E. Waters when his views changed on his priorities. Being around his “own people” distracted him from seeing what his true goal in life was. Now, instead of focusing on his education, he instead focused on the latest trends and worried about fitting into the social scene believing that he “had to work on getting [his]

No one shows the oppression, inflicted upon the Congo’s people in hope of spreading imperialism, better than the main characters in this story. Nathans only goal is to convert all of the native people’s beliefs to Christianity. By hoping to doing this, they will be able to grasp control and establish their dominance upon the village. This can be seen through Orleannas thoughts, “Call it oppression, complicity stupefaction, call it what you’d like, it doesn’t matter. Africa swallowed the conqueror’s music and sang a new song of her own” (Kingsolver 385). Kingsolver shows that individuals are always going to want and demand control, however the victims of this oppression will fight past it and won’t give in. Many people have come before the Price family, trying to do the same thing. However, the natives are smarter than to give into their new ideologies.

As Nathan was treated poorly throughout the story I really saw him forgive his wife time and time again throughout the book. After the death of Nathan and Ruth’s daughter Ariel their relationship was tested to the max. Ruth would isolate herself from her husband and she almost despised him for not being upset with the Lord. Ruth could not accept how Nathan turned to God because she blamed God for all of this. While Nathan was being ignored, looked as bad, or just despised by his wife, he did not fold in and say whatever I give up. Nathan had an understanding and forgiving mindset he understood why his wife felt like this. Nathan forgave his wife while she was in the progress of despises him. Nathan never acted this way towards her, he simply turned the other cheek. Nathan showed a great will power by being able to forgive his wife so easily. This spoke volumes because he simply lived his life in a forgiving manner. As Nathan showed his faith and forgiveness through the story I saw a true man of God. Nathan lived in such a way where he could forgive people for the things they did and this was because of how strong he was in his faith. Living a life like Nathan means to live a life for God. A true man of God allowed for Nathan to live a very purposeful life.

Nathan Price struggles with survivor's guilt from WWII. This grief weighs him down, and it not only causes him to be hard on himself personally, it causes him to be hard on his wife and four daughters. He sees himself as a coward, however, in order to hide how he truly views himself, he shows himself off as brave and strong. In reality, Nathan is a coward for hiding himself behind God, and a selfish man for not letting himself commiserate with others. Along with trying to make himself seem like something he is not, he convinces himself that he is going to save the souls of the Congolese people using God’s power. In reality, he is just trying to save his spot in Heaven since he is so guilty about not dying in WWII. Nathan Price has a certain moral code and if anyone, including his family, disobeys it, he believes they should then be punished by God. He also thinks that God will frown upon any actions that are not centered on God. For example, Nathan does not even take the time to love his own wife and daughters. "Father would sooner watch us all perish one by one than listening to anybody but himself"

This is where the conflict between Carolyn and Nick started. Carolyn said yes and Nick whom decided not to be supervisor earlier said no. Nick stops the resident from going outside and asked the resident to sit and talk; the resident sat down and attempted to listen to Nick talk about why his answer was no. The resident was becoming agitated and got loud with his words; he started cussing and then becoming aggressive. The other staff members and Carolyn went out to the living room to comprehend what was going on.