Sacrifice In Leah, By Barbara Kingsolver

No matter where Leah is or what she is doing she always thinks about her family, this shows how Leah is selfless in everything she does and always puts others needs before her own. In the beginning she tried to satisfy her fathers every need. She had to make many sacrifices in order to please her father because he was a man who is almost impossible to please. Leah’s father, Nathan, was a southern baptist preacher consumed in his religion, therefore Leah did her best to be a good christian and study the word, not for God’s sake but for her father’s sake. She could recite bible verses on command to please him but nothing seemed to work. She was also a tomboy “In the beginning my sisters bustled indoors, playing the role of mother’s helper… …show more content…
Courage goes hand and hand with sacrifices because when you are willing to be courageous it can mean you are sacrificing your possessions or even your life for the greater good. Kingsolver does a great job of showing the courageous nature of leah. Leah was the first one to explore outside of their house, she would walk down the road every day and each day go a little bit further. From the beginning Leah was the only one in the price family willing to make friends with the people of the Congo the rest of the family was to scared. She also risked her life by being the first woman to hunt in the Kilanga village “I killed my first game, a beautiful tawny beast with curved horns and a black diagonal stripe across his flank”(Kingsolver- pg.348), many of the elders didn’t like this idea and she could have been killed for her rebellion.While every other woman in the village sat back and said nothing because they were willing to accept the oppression from the men in the village, Leah took the initiative to stand up for her rights. In this situation Leah took flak from her own family, her dad hated the idea of her hunting. This shows how courageous leah is and how she is willing to stand up for her rights as a woman. Courageous people put a lot on the line because many times it causes them to get in trouble or be at risk. Leah truly showed her courageous nature when she married Anatole and decided to fight alongside him for human rights in the Congo instead of returning to her original comforts of the United States.When Leah married her husband Anatole she knew he was a very political man in the Congo and could be killed or jailed for his beliefs. But Leah had the same beliefs about freedom and justice as Anatole “Better by far defend it/With honor’s holy breath.”(Johnson- 15-6), so she married him. A sacrifice leah had to pay for in the end because Anatole was put in