One of the most famous father figures that appear in American literature and movies is the strict, religous father. They always appear as a symbol of hardship, strict discipline, and punishment in the eyes of the father's children or wife. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, is a story about a strixt Baptist priest, Nathan Price, takes his family of four daugthers and his wife on a mission to bring hope, in the form of Christianity, to the Belgian Congos, where they must stay for a whole year to bring "peace and prosperity", or whatever sugar-coating word they family uses to give themselves a good image. Now, this book has a unique style of story-telling. Instead of just using a third-person view to dexcribe what happens to the family, Kingsolver takes the first-person perspective of each of the four daughters, Leah, Ruth May, Rachel, Adah, as they tell their thoughts and stories on how they do their best to adapt to African life. Before continuing on what I read so far, let me introduce these four girls. Rachel is the eldest, and she's your typical spoiled girl. She's the one who finds it the most difficult to adapt with the Africans because of her fancy dress and her long, blonde hair which stands out like a sore thumb amongest a village of children who barely have hair. Leah and Adah are twins with completely opposite characteristics. Leah likes to stand out, be special, and tries to be "daddy's favorite", by constantly trying to be around her father, and as a result, has become the most religous out of the four girls. Adah is a little less expressive with herself, and almost never speaks out. She does have her moments of pride when she is easily able to speak French fluently when Leah is struggling with comprehending the language. And then there's Ruth May, the youngest of the four girls, and the first who is easily able to get along well with the African children. And then there's the mother of these four unique children, who is almost at the point of ripping her hair out due to the frustration of not being able to adapt to African life. Now that they've all been introduced, story development comes next. So far, the majority of the book has been how strange the Price family thinks of the Congo lifestyle and how they try their best to get along well with the village people. But recently, an interesting event has occured that contains the potential to twist the storyplot to a new direction. A young girl was eaten alive by an aligator as she was undergoing water baptism, introduced by Nathan Price. The only reaction from this event is during preaching time, the head of the African village gives a daring glare that indicates that he is either cursing at the Price family or he lost his faith in Christianity. Also, when Adah accidentilly trips over a mountain of oranges that were to be sol at the village market, the African seller literally hissed at them. This could also be viewed as a sign that tension between the African people and the Price family is building up. From this, foreshadowing even more people giving up on Christianity and the Price family enduring hardship in the near future is merely a simple reflex. Now the question for next week's blog is: is this an accurate foreshadowing?
Thursday, September 24, 2009
The Poisonwood Bible (currently reading)
One of the most famous father figures that appear in American literature and movies is the strict, religous father. They always appear as a symbol of hardship, strict discipline, and punishment in the eyes of the father's children or wife. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, is a story about a strixt Baptist priest, Nathan Price, takes his family of four daugthers and his wife on a mission to bring hope, in the form of Christianity, to the Belgian Congos, where they must stay for a whole year to bring "peace and prosperity", or whatever sugar-coating word they family uses to give themselves a good image. Now, this book has a unique style of story-telling. Instead of just using a third-person view to dexcribe what happens to the family, Kingsolver takes the first-person perspective of each of the four daughters, Leah, Ruth May, Rachel, Adah, as they tell their thoughts and stories on how they do their best to adapt to African life. Before continuing on what I read so far, let me introduce these four girls. Rachel is the eldest, and she's your typical spoiled girl. She's the one who finds it the most difficult to adapt with the Africans because of her fancy dress and her long, blonde hair which stands out like a sore thumb amongest a village of children who barely have hair. Leah and Adah are twins with completely opposite characteristics. Leah likes to stand out, be special, and tries to be "daddy's favorite", by constantly trying to be around her father, and as a result, has become the most religous out of the four girls. Adah is a little less expressive with herself, and almost never speaks out. She does have her moments of pride when she is easily able to speak French fluently when Leah is struggling with comprehending the language. And then there's Ruth May, the youngest of the four girls, and the first who is easily able to get along well with the African children. And then there's the mother of these four unique children, who is almost at the point of ripping her hair out due to the frustration of not being able to adapt to African life. Now that they've all been introduced, story development comes next. So far, the majority of the book has been how strange the Price family thinks of the Congo lifestyle and how they try their best to get along well with the village people. But recently, an interesting event has occured that contains the potential to twist the storyplot to a new direction. A young girl was eaten alive by an aligator as she was undergoing water baptism, introduced by Nathan Price. The only reaction from this event is during preaching time, the head of the African village gives a daring glare that indicates that he is either cursing at the Price family or he lost his faith in Christianity. Also, when Adah accidentilly trips over a mountain of oranges that were to be sol at the village market, the African seller literally hissed at them. This could also be viewed as a sign that tension between the African people and the Price family is building up. From this, foreshadowing even more people giving up on Christianity and the Price family enduring hardship in the near future is merely a simple reflex. Now the question for next week's blog is: is this an accurate foreshadowing?
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`First, I'm pleased that you tried a new genre rather than sticking with fantasy. Which of the 4 daughters has the most exciting story to tell so far? The alligator scene sounds revolting!
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