Response #1 / 1-186
The novel opens with a narrative directive by Orleanna Price, the mother. She asks the reader to “imagine a ruin so strange it must never have happened.” This directive leads myself as a reader to think that Orleanna is foreshadowing the climax of this novel. I’ve interpreted that something unbearable occured in the Congo that Orleanna cannot grasp reality from make-believe. As humans we train our brain to forget about terrible events as if they never happened like it was all a dream. The directive continues on as she asks the reader to “first, picture the forest. I want you to be its conscience, the eyes in the trees” (Kingsolver 5). As a reader this directive is an intimate approach to storytelling, for I as a reader …show more content…
As I continued reading the narrative I came across further evidence to support my claim, that Orleanna was foreshadowing the climax of the novel in her opening statement. Orleanna is rests on the edge of a stream as she reflects on something she has dearly lost. As she rests on the waters edge, a wild animal accompanies her. This wild animal is used symbolically to reflect on the person she has lost. She mentions later on, that she is the “mother of children living and dead” which leads myself as a reader to infer that the person she is grieving is child of her own (Kingsolver 7). She figuratively sees the daughter who is absent from earth through a wild okapi. Orleanna mentions the great disasters that turned the world on an axis called the Congo. I think she alludes to this disastrous idea of the Congo to avoid blaming herself for her childs fatality. Instead blames her husband's confidence as a preacher to help and replenish mankind for being the reason why she is hanging off the edge of the tilting axis, which is the 1960’s. The importance and the purpose of Orleanna’s perspective can be summed up in this quote, “As much as I’ve craved your lost, small body, I want you now to stop stroking my inner arms at night …show more content…
Each girls speaks of the people in Africa as barbaric and strange, more or less, unlike them. Children impulsively do and say exactly what they're thinking. For example, “Ruth May choked out loud and made a horrible face” when she indulged in the dead goat the Africans prepared for their welcoming. The girls are unfamiliar with the african culture, or any culture remotely different from their own for that matter. The food, the dancing, the music, and the fashion is so unusual to them that it enforces a untamable judgement within them. Rachel Price is the most compelling of the daughters as she describes what she sees before her. As she described the music being performed for her welcoming as “weird”. Their ignorance will grow to be knowledge after their stay in Kilanga. One cannot truly understand how the other half lives until they experience how that half
The novel opens with a narrative directive by Orleanna Price, the mother. She asks the reader to “imagine a ruin so strange it must never have happened.” This directive leads myself as a reader to think that Orleanna is foreshadowing the climax of this novel. I’ve interpreted that something unbearable occured in the Congo that Orleanna cannot grasp reality from make-believe. As humans we train our brain to forget about terrible events as if they never happened like it was all a dream. The directive continues on as she asks the reader to “first, picture the forest. I want you to be its conscience, the eyes in the trees” (Kingsolver 5). As a reader this directive is an intimate approach to storytelling, for I as a reader …show more content…
As I continued reading the narrative I came across further evidence to support my claim, that Orleanna was foreshadowing the climax of the novel in her opening statement. Orleanna is rests on the edge of a stream as she reflects on something she has dearly lost. As she rests on the waters edge, a wild animal accompanies her. This wild animal is used symbolically to reflect on the person she has lost. She mentions later on, that she is the “mother of children living and dead” which leads myself as a reader to infer that the person she is grieving is child of her own (Kingsolver 7). She figuratively sees the daughter who is absent from earth through a wild okapi. Orleanna mentions the great disasters that turned the world on an axis called the Congo. I think she alludes to this disastrous idea of the Congo to avoid blaming herself for her childs fatality. Instead blames her husband's confidence as a preacher to help and replenish mankind for being the reason why she is hanging off the edge of the tilting axis, which is the 1960’s. The importance and the purpose of Orleanna’s perspective can be summed up in this quote, “As much as I’ve craved your lost, small body, I want you now to stop stroking my inner arms at night …show more content…
Each girls speaks of the people in Africa as barbaric and strange, more or less, unlike them. Children impulsively do and say exactly what they're thinking. For example, “Ruth May choked out loud and made a horrible face” when she indulged in the dead goat the Africans prepared for their welcoming. The girls are unfamiliar with the african culture, or any culture remotely different from their own for that matter. The food, the dancing, the music, and the fashion is so unusual to them that it enforces a untamable judgement within them. Rachel Price is the most compelling of the daughters as she describes what she sees before her. As she described the music being performed for her welcoming as “weird”. Their ignorance will grow to be knowledge after their stay in Kilanga. One cannot truly understand how the other half lives until they experience how that half