*The Scarlet Letter--Week Five.

A major event now occurs within the scarlet letter as Dimmesdale and Hester are able to converse for the first time without others around. Through physical appearances and actions of both Dimmesdale and Hester, the reader learns that Dimmesdale has actually suffered more than Hester, which is ironic because everyone knows Hester’s sin which has tainted her reputation. However, Dimmesdale suffers more because he must “stand up in [his] pulpit and meet so many eyes turned upward to [his] face, as if the light of heaven were beaming from it!” therefore, Dimmesdale goes through life pretending to be somebody that he is not which makes the appearance of Dimmesdale to be ‘Godly.’ Ironically, Dimmesdale’s guilt comes from his saintly reputation, as he is forced to preach and symbolize a false appearance; one in which he pretends to preach holiness and good deeds which make people honor his words and respect him as a whole. If only the congregation would “look inward and discern the black reality of what they idolize” then Dimmesdale would not be clouded with guilt from his hypocrisy.

The only time Dimmesdale feels that although he is “false to God and man”, only with Hester is Dimmesdale “for one moment, true.” Also, the only time Hester does not feel the scarlet letter “burn the bosom of the fallen woman” is when she is with Dimmesdale. The sense of goodness that both feel with each other shows that they are the only two that really understand each other, and ironically, are the two people that are most open minded and non judgmental in the community, but are the two that are punished, which shows that not everything is as it seems. This reason is what led up to Hester suggesting the two leave and feel to Europe.

Hester provides reassurance and hope for Dimmesdale, suggesting they go to Europe and start a new life. Although one would think Hester would need comfort from Dimmesdale, Dimmesdale is the one who needs guidance in life, therefore showing people are not what they appear to be on the outside. Dimmesdale is appeared as a saint-like man whom others look up to, as Hester, on the other hand, is looked down upon and punished repeatedly for her wrong doings. However Hester’s punishment has made her stronger whereas Dimmesdale has become weaker from the act he must portray each day.

Hawthorne again uses physiognomy to portray the effect the scarlet letter has on Hester. Once Hester removes the letter, a “burden of shame and anguish departed from her spirit” and “around her mouth” was a “radiant tender smile” as Hester’s “sex, her youth, and the whole richness of her beauty came back.” Not only did Hester’s appearance become more beautiful, but also her surroundings as “forth burst the sunshine” in the forest, “gladdening each green leaf, transmuting the yellow fallen ones to gold, and gleaming adown the gray trunks of the solemn trees.” All of the items that once “made a shadow hitherto” now “embodied brightness”, livening the entire forest into a “mystery of joy.” The imagery and metaphors describing beauty in Hester and the forest after the removal of the scarlet letter shows how much better and happier life is without the letter. However, the happiness that Hester experiences is short lived, as Pearl forces her mother to put the letter back on, because Pearl does not recognize her mother without it. Not only that, but since Pearl is the “living version of the scarlet letter,” Hester removing the letter is like removing Pearl from her life, and saying that Hester does not need Pearl anymore now that she has Dimmesdale. The A also symbolizes not only the sin that Hester committed, but also the sin that Dimmesdale committed. Not only does the A punish her, but also him, and by removing it the two would be relieved of their sin. However, because Dimmesdale refuses to confess in front of everyone what he truly did, Hester cannot be relieved of her sin until Dimmesdale is. Because of the physical and emotional toll the letter and sin take on Dimmesdale and Hester, the reader begins to wonder if Dimmesdale will ever confess and if the couple will ever live in peace?

*The Scarlet Letter--Week Four.

Is Chillingworth truly the Devil? This is the question that has risen throughout the course of The Scarlet Letter, and is continuing to hold true. The physiognomy of Roger Chillingworth epitomizes an eerie and devilish appearance that was not related to just “growing older.” The old personality Hester Prynne has remembered of Chillingworth being “an intellectual and studious man, calm and quiet” has vanished, as a “glare of red light” now appears in Chillingworth’s eyes, “as if the old man were on fire.” The devilish appearance attributes to the fact that Chillingworth is not attempting to know Dimmesdale’s secret to help Dimmesdale, but because Chillingworth wants revenge on the man that tempted his wife. Roger Chillingworth had practiced doing the Devil’s work so much, that he had begun “transforming himself into the Devil.”

Although Chillingworth’s appearance and characteristics make him appear more demonic, on the contrary, the town starts perceiving Hester with a “general regard that had ultimately grown up in reference to Hester Prynne” as there were “none so ready as she to give of her little substance to every demand of poverty” and soon many people “refused to interpret the scarlet letter A by its original signification” but rather the town viewed the A in that it meant “Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” as the A was now looked upon as “a token, not of that one sin, for which she had borne so long and dreary a penance, but of her many good deeds since.” The metaphor of “the scarlet letter had the effect of the cross on a nun’s bosom” proves just how saintly and righteous Hester now appears after she has continued on her life, and tried to rectify her life.

Ironically, although the town began viewing Hester in a better light, Hester herself continued to feel the pain associated with the A, as “on the mind of Hester Prynne herself, was powerful and peculiar” as “all the light and graceful foliage of her character had been withered up by this red-hot brand, and had long ago fallen away, leaving a bare and harsh outline” is metaphor used to describe the weak appearance of Hester. Hester’s “attractiveness had undergone a change” from “rich and luxuriant hair” to all of her hair “hidden by a cap, that not a shining lock of it ever once gushed into the sunshine.” Although the town believes that the A has helped reform Hester into a better person, in reality the A has taken not only a physical toll on Hester, but now has “the same dark question” pondering Hester’s mind “was the existence worth accepting, even to the happiest among [women]?” Would it be better to “send Pearl at once to heaven, and go herself to such futurity as Eternal Justice should provide?” Although the town views Hester as a better and happier women, Hester herself begins to question whether life on earth is really worth all the pain that comes with it.

Although the reader does not yet know the man that Hester Prynne had an affair with, clues are hinted at throughout the story foreshadowing who the man is. Pearl is the main character who hints at these clues, and makes them known to the reader. When Pearl keeps persistently asking what “the scarlet letter means”, Hester replies by saying she “got it from the Black Man.” Pearl then questions “why does the minister keep his hand over his heart? Did he get something from the Black Man too?” which foreshadows that Dimmesdale is the adulterer.

In the end of this week’s reading, the reader is left with Pearl and Hester in the forest, which was “black and dense” and appeared to disclose “such imperfect glimpses of the sky above” which symbolizes the “moral wilderness in which” Hester has “so long been wandering.” The “flickering sunlight” was only seen every now and then, as Pearl noted that “the sunshine does not love [Hester], but runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on [her] bosom.” As Pearl followed the sunlight, it remained shining upon her, but when Hester tried to walk into the light the “sunshine vanished.” The sunlight amidst the darkened forest symbolizes a bit of happiness in all of Hester’s “dark” life. The significance of Pearl being able to stand in the light depicts how Pearl is the good aspect in Hester’s life. Along with happiness attributed to the sunlight, the sunlight also portrays truth, as the darkness of the forest portrays sin. The only way Hester can every enter sunlight is if she frees herself of her sin and tells the truth about who her adulterer is. Otherwise, Hester will continue living an isolated life, dark and alone.

*The Scarlet Letter--Week Three.

Proceeding on in the reading of Scarlet Letter, the reader delves into the guilt of Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and the relationship that forms between himself and Roger Chillingworth.

The new found relationship between Dimmesdale and Chillingworth is nonetheless ironic in that both men have a relationship with Hester Prynne, yet neither of the men knows it. The two became friends because the “mysterious old Roger Chillingworth became the medical advisor of the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale” because Chillingworth “was strongly moved to look into the character and qualities of the patient.” Then two men “spent much time together”, and Dimmesdale, “a true priest, a true religionist” soon became interested and enjoyed “the occasional relief of looking at the universe through the medium of another kind of intellect”, in other words, a scientific view on life that Chillingworth provided. Although the two differ in beliefs on the wide aspect of the world, what the two have in common is the relationship each men share with Hester. It’s a bit ironic that Chillingworth is attempting to release a lie and sin out of Dimmesdale, when Chillingworth himself is keeping a secret. Is Dimmesdale and Chillingworth’s relationship going to provide clues that Chillingworth needs to uncover the truth about Pearl being Dimmesdale’s daughter? And what will happen to the two’s relationship if either of them uncover who each man really is?

The home that Chillingworth and Dimmesdale reside in has ironic characteristics. The walls of Dimmesdale’s room “were hung round with tapestry said to be from the Gobelin looms” which represented “the Scriptural story of David and Bathsheba.” David was a biblical character who committed adultery with Bathsheba. Also, on the wall, was “Nathan the Prophet”, who accused David of his actions. Irony in the biblical story upon Dimmesdale’s wall is that he is in fact David, Hester is Bathsheba, and Chillingworth is Nathan.

Chillingworth has various ways in achieving the task for Dimmesdale to tell the sin he committed. While collecting medicinal herbs one day, Chillingworth found a “dark, flabby leaf.” When asked by Dimmesdale where Chillingworth found such a drab looking weed, Chillingworth says he found them “growing on a grave” and the weeds “have taken upon themselves to keep him in remembrance”, for the man had no tombstone upon his gravesite. Perhaps the weeds “grew out of his heart, and typify, it may be, some hideous secret that was buried with him, and which he had done better to confess during his lifetime” Chillingworth retorts to Dimmesdale, hoping to uncover the secret from him.

When pressured again about the symptoms Dimmesdale is feeling and as to what is making him sick, Chillingworth continues to question Dimmesdale. Angered by the persistent questioning, Dimmesdale still refuses to tell. Chillingworth responds with saying that “nothing is lost” and that the two will “shall be friends again anon. But see, now, how passion takes hold upon this man, and hurrieth him out of himself! As with one passion, so with another! He hath done a wild thing ere now, this pious Master Dimmesdale, in the hot passion of his heart!” The statements and actions Chillingworth has towards Dimmesdale makes the reader wonder if Chillingworth knows what Dimmesdale did?

Pearl continues to show a “demonic” and “elfish” side to her personality throughout the story. While walking with Hester one day, Pearl gathered “prickly burrs from a tall burdock, and arranged them along the lines of the scarlet letter” upon Hester’s breast, which “Hester did not puck off.” Pearl then looked up at Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale in the window, and “threw one of the prickly burrs” at him. The burrs symbolize sin, and the importance of not only putting a burr on the scarlet “A” upon Hester, but also throwing one at Dimmesdale correlates the two together, therefore foreshadowing that Dimmesdale is Hester’s adulterer. Also, the burrs are “prickly” and stick to a person right away, symbolizing how the sin each committed sticks and pokes each one, therefore unable to forget about it.

The guilt that Dimmesdale feels overpowers his ability to act in a rational manner. Chapter 12, “The Minister’s Vigil” is titled so because Dimmesdale wakes in the middle of the night, and “reached the spot, where, now so long since, Hester Prynne had lived through her first hour of public ignominy.” While standing on the scaffolding, Dimmesdale, “without any effort of his will”, screamed aloud, “an outcry that went pealing through the night…as if a company of devils detecting so much misery and terror in it, had made a plaything of the sound, and were bandying it to and fro.” After the relentless cry that Dimmesdale let out, he was sure that the town would all hear, and that everyone would know of his sin. However, no one heard, and if anyone in the town did, they just thought that it was “the witches” in the town. Shortly after, Hester and Pearl saw Dimmesdale standing upon the scaffolding, and stood with him, joining hands. The very moment that Dimmesdale touched Pearl’s hand, “there came what seemed a tumultuous rush of new life, other life than his own, pouring like a torrent into his heart…as if the mother and child were communicating their vital warmth into his half-torpid system.” Being together and joined in an “electric chain” with Pearl and Hester created “warmth” throughout Dimmesdale’s body, as if all the emotional pain and guilt he had been feeling earlier was suddenly healed. When asked by Pearl if Dimmesdale will hold Pearl’s and Hester’s hand when the two must stand up there again, Dimmesdale said “another time.” A flash of light then clouded up the sky and Dimmesdale saw an “appearance of an immense letter,-the letter A,-marked out in lines of dull red light.” The ‘A’ that Dimmesdale sees up in the sky symbolizes the guilt that Dimmesdale has, not only in being the adulterer, but also not being able to confess it to his congregation, and most importantly himself.

While standing on the scaffolding, “Mr. Dimmesdale was overcome with a great horror of mind, as if the universe were gazing at a scarlet token on his naked breast, right over his heart.” Could the mark on Dimmesdale’s chest that Chillingworth saw be an A? Is that why Dimmesdale always has his hand on his chest, because of the pain and guilt that he feels?

*The Scarlet Letter--Week Two.

In the continuation of Scarlet Letter, the scarlet A continues to inflict a burden upon Hester Prynne. As Hester is released from the prison, imagery depicts Hester’s mood as she is released through the prison doors. Being free from prison, however, does not mean that Hester is free from the guilt inflicted upon her, as “she came forth into the sunshine, which, falling on all alike, seemed, to her sick and morbid heart, as if meant for no other purpose than to reveal the scarlet letter on her breast.” Hester embarks on her journey to rid herself of the mockery she faced previously from the town, but the “burning of the A upon [her] bosom” grew fierier each day. Throughout all of the people that looked upon the ‘A’, the spot “never grew callous; it seemed, on the contrary, to grow more sensitive with daily torture” as Hester never got used to the letter branded into her. The metaphor in the “law which condemned” her was a “giant of stern features, but with vigor to support, as well as to annihilate” means that the law which once held Hester up through the standing on the scaffold, could now obliterate her as she walks out of the prison completely alone.

When Hester and Pearl arrive at the Governor’s house, Pearl sees a reflection of Hester in a mirror and in an old headpiece. In the reflection in the “convex mirror, the scarlet letter was represented in exaggerated and gigantic proportions, so as to be greatly the most prominent feature of her appearance.” No matter how much Hester tries to appear larger than the sin she committed, the burning remnants of scarlet letter will continue to make Hester feel as if she is “hidden behind it.”

A biblical allusion is used to compare Hester to Cain, who was the first murderer branded by God to warn others of him, similarly like the brand administered upon Hester to warn others of her adultery.

When Hester gets out of prison, she resides in an isolated “thatched cottage” on the “outskirts of town” where she spends much of her time sewing clothing items for people of the town. Hester sewed for many people and many occasions, but the one occasion Hester was not allowed to sew anything for was a “white veil to cover the pure blushes of a bride” for “society frowned upon her sin” and did not think that a wedding between two pure people should be cursed by the needlework of an adulterer. Since Hester sewed her own “A” upon her clothing to symbolize her sin, the sewn clothing worn by other people in the town makes the reader wonder if the sewn articles of clothing symbolize how each person in the community is sinful, and should be marked as well.

In chapter 6, the reader is introduced to Hester’s daughter, Pearl. The name Pearl was “not expressive of her aspect, which had nothing of the calm, white, unimpassioned luster that would be indicated by the comparison” but rather because Pearl came about because of a “great price” her mother had to pay and is also “her mother’s only treasure.”

Although Pearl is known as a beautiful girl, when Hester looks Pearl in the eyes, she sees “an evil spirit possessed the child” while looking into the “abyss of her black eyes”. Pearl then questions as to where she came from, Hester replies by saying Pearl came from “Thy Heavenly Father”, but Pearl disagreed, and said that she “has no Heavenly Father”. Hester then thought back on when the “neighboring townspeople” said that “poor little Pearl was a demon offspring, such as, ever since old Catholic times, had occasionally been seen on earth, through the agency of their mother’s sin, and to promote some foul and wicked purpose.” Could Pearl possibly be the work of witchcraft to punish Hester even more of her sins?

Although Pearl has demonic eyes, she has the beauty of Hester, along with a peculiar personality. No matter how pure Pearl’s moral life had originally been, her life had now “taken the deep stains of crimson and gold, the fiery lustre, the black shadow, and the untempered light, of the intervening substance.” Hester could detect her own “wild, desperate, defiant mood, the flightiness of her temper, and even some of the very cloud-shapes of gloom and despondency that had brooded in her heart” within the personality of Pearl. Hester dresses Pearl in a “crimson velvet tunic, abundantly embroidered with fantasies and flourishes of gold thread”, to make her appear exactly like the ‘A’ that is embroidered upon Hester’s breast. Each clue of Pearl embodying traits of Hester’s sinful and lustful personality along with Hester’s beauty and resembling the appearance of the scarlet letter, the reader undoubtedly realizes that Pearl is “the scarlet letter endowed with life!” Why did Hester make her child resemble the most guilt ridden symbol embedded within Hester’s mind? Was it because “the red ignominy [was] so deeply scorched into her brain, that all her conceptions assumed its form”?

When asked where Pearl came from, she replies by saying that she was “picked off the rosebush by the prison door.” The significance of equating the origin of Pearl to the rosebush not only depicts the physical connotation of the rose, being that Pearl is beautiful on the outside just like the rose, yet has a “thorny” personality, but also from when, in the first chapter, the reader is first brought upon the rosebush. The reader learns that the rosebush could possibly be growing by the prison from Anne Hutchinson, who committed a sin in some people’s eyes, as she broke free of the Puritan rule and believed in individual freedom. The rosebush is a symbol of sin, yet also a symbol of hope and individuality, much like the personality of Pearl.

In the very end of chapter 8, Pearl’s personality alters when Mr. Dimmesdale defends Hester’s right to keep her daughter. Morphing from Pearl’s usual wild and non sentimental self, Pearl goes up to Dimmesdale and “taking his hand in the grasp of both her own, laid her cheek against it; a caress so tender, and withal so unobtrusive” that Hester wondered “Is that my Pearl?” Could the affection Pearl has towards Dimmesdale foreshadow that he could in fact be her father?

*The Scarlet Letter--Week One.

The Scarlet Letter takes place in Boston, Massachusetts among a group of people known as Puritans. The Puritan beliefs already provide symbolism within the book, as the Puritans believed in the devil and that Satan was loose in Massachusetts which is ironically where the story takes place. Along with Satan, the Puritans also believed in witchcraft, and many people blamed witches for their wrong doings, leading the reader to wonder if Hester Prynne or people among the community will blame Hester’s adultery upon the work of witches.

Right away, the reader is introduced to a scene of “bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowned hats” that are “assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak and studded with iron spikes.” The first buildings in Boston were of “practical necessities” as the people appointed one “portion of the virgin lot as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison.” The Puritan people believed strongly in sin, as Eve led Adam to sin, therefore all of mankind are contaminated with sin. The Puritans believe that “Dancing was acceptable, but sexual dancing was not. Drinking alcohol was acceptable, but becoming drunk was not. They believed strongly in marriage and were opposed to illicit sexual activities. Adultery was punishable by death.” The sin that the Puritans believed existed among every person led them to build cemeteries and jails right away in towns, because the Puritans also believed in punishing all wrongdoings.

Among all the “dark” “gloomy” and weeded” appearance of the prison, lies a “wild rosebush, covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems.” The rosebush has been part of the land for quite some time, and no one is sure what is keeping the rosebush alive; whether its “merely survived out of the stern old wilderness” or whether “it had sprung up under the footsteps of the sainted Ann Hutchinson, as she entered the prison door.” Anne Hutchinson is a woman who organized religious groups of the Puritans, but spoke beliefs without being sanctioned to do so, and was therefore thrown into jail. The rosebush is hoped to “symbolize some sweet moral blossom that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow” much like what Ann Hutchinson was attempting to accomplish.

Hester Prynne is the main character in the story, who has committed adultery after her husband left. Not only is Hester Prynne’s personality and sin different from the rest of the towns, but the reader also sees a physical appearance that differs. Along with the scarlet “A” that Hester so neatly and glamorously sewed upon her breast, the physical appearance of Hester was of a “beautiful women, so picturesque in her attire and mien.” In all of Hester’s beauty, lies a scarlet colored “A” with golden stitching upon her breast, which seems ironic that for committing adultery, one would be forced to put something on her bosom that draws more attention in an area that one should be ashamed of. The color scarlet symbolizes sin, which is why the ‘A’ that Hester sews upon herself is of that color.

Hester Prynne is forced to stand upon a “scaffold” in front of the community for her punishment, where she set eyes on a stranger with “so fixed a gaze that, at moments of intense absorption, all objects in the visible world seemed to vanish.” The reader wonders if maybe the stranger that has arrived is Hester’s adulterer?

Not only does one pose questions about the stranger, but also about Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale. While Reverend Mr. Wilson, Mr. Dimmesdale, and the Governor are supposed to convince Hester to “speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner”, Mr. Dimmesdale only asks the question once, and then asks no more. Perhaps because Mr. Dimmesdale could also be Hester’s adulterer?

*The Poisonwood Bible--Week Six.

“Nzolo-it means dearly beloved; or a white grub used for fish bait, or a special fetish against dysentery; or little potatoes. Nzolo is the double-sized pagne that wraps around two people at once. Finally I see how these things are related. In a marriage ceremony, husband and wife stand tightly bound by their nzole and hold one another to be the most precious: nzolani. As precious as the first potatoes of the season, small and sweet like Georgia peanuts. Precious as the fattest grubs turned up from the soil, which catch the largest fish. And the fetish most treasured by mothers, against dysentery, contains a particle of all the things invoked by the word nzolo: you must dig and dry the grub and potatoes, bind them with a thread from your wedding cloth, and have them blessed in a fire by the nganga doctor.”

As a reader, the most exciting aspect of The Poisonwood Bible is to be able to read about how each girl has changed throughout the course of the story, as the reader grows and matures along with each girl as they become women. The preceding paragraph exemplifies the maturing of Leah, and how she has gained insight on the Congolese vernacular. The time span and the multiple narration that Barbara Kingsolver wrote in the book aids the reader in depicting the lifestyle of each girl, and also allows the reader to develop along with the characters.

As each girl continues to grow and develop emotionally after departing the Congo, each one also rebels against Nathan. Adah went to college and enjoyed learning about science more than religion, Leah married Anatole, which would have been a sin for the mere reason that Anatole was a different race, and Rachel became a “Jezebel” as people mistake Rachel for the “madam of a whorehouse.”

Even though Leah, in a way, rebels from her father, Leah still names one of her children after him. Just as in the last reading section, each of Leah’s children was named after someone of importance to Leah. The final child that Leah had was named Natanial, after Leah’s father Nathan. When Leah gave birth to Nataniel, he “took extra care to stay alive.” Leah was “terrified to put him down at all…for fear that he’d slip away.” Nataniel was “hard to convince” to try to keep breathing, and stay alive. Finally, Nataniel began to eat and “seems happy with his decision to stay with [them].” Nataniel, much like Nathan, is stubborn and a pretentious in his ways.

Not only is Nataniel like one of Leah’s family members, but Martin Lothair “reminds [Leah] of his Aunt Adah” in the way that Martin is “turning out to be the darkest” of Leah’s sons, for at the age of “twelve, he broods and writes poetry in a journal.” Fitting for his name, Pascal reminds Leah exactly of her “namesake, old friend, with similar wide-set eyes.”

Not only are Leah’s children like members of the Price family, but Leah also exhibits traits of Orleanna, while Leah sat “on the floor rocking, sleepless, deranged by exhaustion, cradling the innocent wreck of a baby.” Leah, in this section, again reminds the reader of Orleanna when Orleanna speaks of when she was doing whatever it took to try to keep Adah and her other children alive, which was not a simple task. Leah begged the fire to “keep this little boy I already love so much from going cold” and to the kettle of “boiled, sterile water and tiny dropper” to keep the baby hydrated. While reading this, the reader gets taken back to when Orleanna speaks about struggling to keep Adah alive. However Leah “suddenly had a fully formed memory of [her] mother kneeling and talking-praying” to keep Ruth May alive. The different insight the reader gains from what the character gains, is all played throughout the point of view. Since Kingsolver had each of the girls and Orleanna be a narrator, the reader is able to grasp onto clues that the girls did not know, and also clues that Orleanna did not know. Such as at the very last chapter, the reader is taken back to the opening of the story- where Orleanna saw the okapi; only this time, the reader understands that the okapi running off from being frightened by the girls was not a bad thing, but rather a blessing. If the girls had not scared off the okapi, “he would have remained until the second month of the dry season, and then a hunter would have killed him.” In reality, the Price women saved the okapi’s life. Because of the altering points of view, what the reader reads is not biased, and at the same time the reader gains insight on each woman’s perspective, therefore broadening the details of each person’s life.

When the girls lived with Nathan, every time something appalling happened, each girl believed that God was punishing them for a sin committed. However, as Leah begins to grow and understand more about life, she learns that the “sun rises and sets at six exactly. A caterpillar becomes a butterfly, a bird raises its brood in the forest, and a greenheart tree will only grow from a greenheart seed. He brings drought sometimes, followed by torrential rains, and if these things aren’t always what I had in mind, they aren’t my punishment either. They’re rewards, let’s say.” Leah discovers that God does not cause certain events in nature to happen as punishment, but that’s just how life is-there has to be good and bad. For without bad in the world, one would not know what good is.

Though Leah has learned from her experience in the Congo, Rachel has still failed to adapt and morph into a girl that understands and accepts others. The reader again sees the failed acceptance as Rachel continues to delineate a self-conceded character. Rachel worries about her own self worth, as Rachel “lets others do the pushing and shoving, as you just ride along.” Rachel doesn’t mind that she may sound “un-Christian” for letting other people do the dirty work for her, to survive all you have to do is “stick out your elbows and hold yourself up.”

Rachel makes an ironic statement directed towards Eeben Axelroot, as she speaks of acquiring “female problems” because of an “infection [she] contracted from Eeben Axelroot.” Because of the infection, Rachel became infertile. The ironic comment from Rachel is when she says “like I said, I paid my price with him.” The last name of Rachel being Price makes the statement ironic and also a pun. By saying that Rachel has “paid her price”, Rachel is emphasizing how she basically gave up herself and her happiness for Axelroot.

The point is made quite pellucid that Rachel wishes to go back and reside in America, and the reader begins wondering why Rachel doesn’t. Rachel admits to missing the “parties, the cars, the music- the whole carefree American way of life.” However, later on, Rachel admits that she “had her bags packed more than once” but didn’t go for fear of not being “able to fit back in.” Rachel was only nineteen at the time, and didn’t think that she would fit in with her “stained hair and one dead sister and a whole darn marriage behind her already, not to mention hell and high water. Not to mention the Congo.” Even through all of the tragedy within Rachel’s life, she is most concerned with not being able to fit in. The question then leads back into why didn’t Orleanna leave? With all of the similarity that Kingsolver portrays between the girls and their mother, the reader wonders if perhaps Orleanna stayed in the Congo for fear it was too late to leave and she wouldn’t fit back into her old lifestyle anymore.

“I am still Adah, but you would hardly know me now, without my slant.” A few chapters back, Adah explains how Emily Dickenson said to “tell all the truth but tell it in slant.” However, now that Adah has lost her “crookedness” and her “ability to read in the old way.” Adah misses her old self so much, that sometimes at night she “secretly limps purposely around [her] apartment.” Now that Adah is “like everybody else”, she begins missing the old peculiar self. In the “Western Civilization” one must expect “perfection” because it has been decided “that dark skin or lameness may not be entirely one’s fault, but one still ought to show the good manners to act ashamed.” However, Adah doesn’t wish to become like every other “normal” person. Adah discovered in the Congo that it is alright being peculiar; therefore, Adah symbolizes the minority of people who are okay with being different even though the culture does not commend it.

When Adah becomes a doctor, she must “swear to uphold the Hippocratic Oath” which basically states that a doctor will do whatever he or she can to save a patient. However, Adah’s “small hairs on the back of [her] neck stood up” as she agreed to take the oath. For who was she, “vowing calmly among all these neck tied young men to steal life out of nature’s jaws?” Even though Adah is a doctor, which verifies her to save people’s lives, it is ironic that Adah still believes in having nature take its course, and whatever is meant to be will just happen without the aid of medicine.

Kingsolver’s overall theme in the story is depicting how America tries to control other countries and change the way of life, because Americans believe that their way is the best. Not only that, but America takes for granted material items, whereas in the Congo, “you know what a seed is for, or you starve.” Not only does Kingsolver depict how America takes items for granted, but also portrays how America’s believe that their ways are best. In the Congo, “the soil falls apart, the earth melts into red gashes like the mouths of whales. Fungi and vines throw a blanket over the face of the dead land. And when you clear off part of the plate, the whole slides into ruin.” The personification exemplifies how when America attempts to make Africa better by building roads “the whole slides into ruins” but, “stop clearing, and the balance slowly returns. Maybe in the long run, people will persist happily here only if they return to the ways of the ancient Kongo, traveling by foot, growing their food near at hand, using their own tools and cloth near the site of production.”

In the very last chapter of the story, Ruth May concludes the story by taking the reader back to a scene in the very beginning of the book--back to the okapi. Although Orleanna thought that she scared off the okapi, and upset it- in reality, because the girls scared off the okapi, they actually saved the okapis life, showing that “every life is different because you passed this way and touched history.” Ultimately showing how Africa and each country is different because of the people that have passed through it, and expelled their culture upon it. The okapi running away from Orleanna symbolized how she has lost her solitude, and then at the end of the story when Orleanna is given an okapi by the lady in the market, symbolizes how she has gained back her solitude when Ruth May forgives Orleanna and tells Orleanna to forgive herself, also.

The last symbol of closure is when the women come into town, and ask how to get to Kilanga so they can see Ruth’s grave. However, everyone that the women ask say that “Kilanga is not reachable” because the road is closed off and one cannot travel down it, ultimately symbolizing the closure of each women’s life in the Congo and all of the guilt that each had.

*The Poisonwood Bible--Week Five.

“Africa has a thousand ways to get under your skin” is a quote that portrays much of Exodus. As the girls and Orleanna separate and begin to live each one’s own life, the reader can see the transformation of Leah and Adah and the personality that remains with Rachel.

Leah has evolved the most out of the three girls within the story, as she continues to use Congolese techniques in everyday life. Now that Leah has married Anatole, an African man, Leah has decided to stay behind from her family and live in Africa with Anatole. Leah’s learned tricks from African women, such as balancing items on top of her head rather than carrying items in her hands. The entire time Leah had been in the Congo, she had been “awestruck by what the ladies could carry on their heads, but had never once tried it [herself].” Not only that, but Leah also learned when the “river was receding from its rainy season flood by its peculiar rank smell and all the driftwood…” Leah thinks back on when her mother told the girls that if a boat ever begins to turn over, “grab onto the side and hold on for dear life” but Leah learned Congolese boats are “made out of dense wood so if they capsize they sink like a rock.” Leah has been the most prevalent character at showing positivity from the Congo, and put to good use the culture of Congo.

Now that Nathan is out of Leah’s life, Leah is finally able to love who she wants- an African boy, Anatole. Leah learns “love changes everything” or, “requited love” does, for Leah has “loved [her] father fiercely [her] whole life, and it changed nothing.” However, when Leah is with Anatole, he makes “the colors of the aurora borealis rise off [her] skin” and sends “needles of ice tinkling blue through [her] brain when he looks in [her] eyes.” For Leah, Anatole has “banished the honey-colored ache of malaria and guilt from [her] blood” and because Leah’s father is no longer a part of her life, Leah is able to have feelings for someone without the fear of sinning. Not only does the imagery depict Leah’s strong feelings toward Anatole, but describes how “by way of Anatole, [Leah] is delivered not out of life, but through it.”

Even though Leah has begun accepting the African culture, and almost believes in their ways more than her father’s, Leah is still treated differently because she is white. Now as Leah lives in Africa, she is discovering what it is like to be treated differently, as Leah “damn’s [President Eisenhower, King Leopold, and Nathan] for throwing [her] into a war in which white skin comes down on the wrong side.”

The names within Leah’s life pose symbolism towards the story. Starting with Leah’s own name, Anatole explains how “Lingala” is sweet and maternal”, which is Leah’s African name. However, Leah’s English name is sarcastic, depicting how Leah used to act towards the Africans when her life was based on English beliefs. The difference between the African name and the English name symbolizes how Kingsolver is depicting the personalities of each country. By having Leah’s African name mean “sweet and maternal” and Leah’s English name mean “sarcastic”, Kingsolver exemplifies how Africans are caring for each person within the country and always looking out for one another; whereas in America, the population is overly sarcastic and arrogant.

Not only does Leah’s name show symbolism, but also Leah’s children’s names. Leah’s first two sons were named after Patrice and Pascal, Patrice being a leader of the Congo who was killed, and Pascal being an old childhood friend from the Congo. By naming the children after people in the Congo, Leah shows how Africans did have an impact on her, and that Leah respected their beliefs and friendship. Martin Lothair was Leah’s third child’s name, which sounds like Martin Luther, who was known for altering Christianity by saying that “salvation is not earned by good deeds but received only as a free gift of God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ” (Wikipedia.com)

Later on, when the reader finds out that Leah becomes an English teacher to American children, Leah realizes how ungrateful the children are as each begins complaining missing “their dire-sounding TV shows, things with Vice and Cop and Jeopardy in their titles.” Leah explains what the children are ignorant to is that “they’d been utterly surrounded by vice, cops, and the pure snake-infested jeopardy of a jungle.” The cleverness of relating the Television shows to actual occurrences in the Congo exemplifies how mature and knowledgeable Leah has become. When the children mock Leah’s dress style and call her “Mrs. Gumbo”, Leah “pitied them, despised them, and silently willed them back home.” What Leah doesn’t realize, is that is how the Price family treated the Congolese when they first moved to Africa.

As the girls separate from each other, the reader can identify personality that each girl portrays from Orleanna. Leah and Anatole’s relationship has certain characteristics that relate to Orleanna and Nathan’s relationship. Anatole “worked with the Lumbumbists” and was only expected to be gone for “no more than six or eight weeks.” However, Anatole was gone much longer, and Leah sat home and waited for a letter from Anatole. Anatole being away from Leah compares to when Nathan went into the war, and Orleanna waited and waited for his letter. Will Anatole change as much from the war as Nathan did, and will Leah be in the same position that Orleanna was in?

Much like Orleanna with Nathan, Leah begins to experience loneliness when Anatole is gone. As Leah reminisces back on memories of Anatole while he is gone, Leah tries to “decide which [chicken] to kill for supper” but in the end, Leah “can never take any of them, on account of the companionship [she] would lose.” Because of Orleanna’s loneliness, guilt, and regret, she explains that’s why she writes in this book. Just like Orleanna, Leah begins writing to Adah and Anatole. Even though “neither of them will ever see [her] letters”, Leah writes because she “needs the pouring out” of words and feelings, and the companionship of someone else, even if it’s fictitious.

While Leah’s life is beginning to appear like Orleanna’s, Rachel’s life has aspects of Nathan in it as Rachel’s personality remains greedy. Nathan came to the Congo, not for the benefit of the people and to help the community become better, but was rather for his own personal gain to appear as a savior over the people. Rachel’s matrimony with men isn’t for love, but rather for her personal gain. Rachel poses a false engagement with Eeben Axelroot so that she can depart from Congo. Then Rachel tries to have a relationship with Daniel, a married man, basically just to see if she can steal Daniel away from his wife and so Rachel can become rich and have items such as a “dior gown.” Finally, Rachel marries “Diplomat Remy Fairley” who at least had the “decency to die and leave [her] the Equatorial.” Rachel wanted a building just like “Shah’s temple” referring to Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, after she died. Rachel did not marry these men for love, but rather for the material items that they provided to her. Each chapter title pertaining to Rachel has different last names, showing how many times Rachel has been married, ultimately showing how Rachel flutters from one guy to the next, waiting more material goods. Rachel tricked each one of the men as they “never knew what hit [them].”

Rachel is the one sister that fails to conform to the African culture. Rachel concerns herself with affluence and fashion trends. Rather than being concerned about her family, Rachel frets about how because the Ladies’ Home Journal arrives so late, that the women “are one or two months out of style” as they “probably started painting [their] nails Immoral Coral after everybody sensible had already gone on to pink.”

Rachel notices, while riding the train out to the beach, that “you have to look the other way” because the people’s homes are made “out of a piece of rusted tin or the side of a crate.” Rachel explains how “you just have to try and understand they don’t have the same ethics as us. That is one part of living here. Being understanding of the differences.” This line depicts irony, for Rachel is the sister who is not understanding of differences.

Rachel’s goal in her new life to forget about what happened in the Congo, and simply block those details out of her life. Very rarely, Rachel takes out a “gold locket” that she wore in the Congo. Inside of the locket was a picture of “teeny little sad faces” of Rachel and her sisters. The picture is “so small, [Rachel] has to hold it practically at the end of [her] nose to make out who it is” symbolizing Rachel’s feelings toward her family during and after life in the Congo- small, minute, and almost nonexistent.

Not only does Rachel forget about her family, but has no recollection of the people in Congo. While hanging out with Adah and Leah, Leah tells about how Pascal has died, and Rachel first thought Leah was talking about her son, and then finally remembered Pascal as “the little boy with the holes in his pants.” Rachel had no memory of anyone in the Congo, showing how the people had no affect on her, ultimately symbolizing the obsessive and high standard personality Rachel has for herself.

Not only do the girls change emotionally, but Adah changes physically and she gets help from a doctor and is no longer crippled. Now that Nathan is out of Adah’s life, she is able to go to college and become a doctor. While everyone believed that Adah was the sister destined to fail, ironically Adah is the one making the most out of her life and is the happiest out of all the sisters. Leah and Rachel exhibit traits that makes the reader question if they may end up like Orleanna and Nathan in the end, whereas Adah is living her own life, and going on to school to become a doctor and finally doing something for herself.

After Orleanna leaves Nathan, herself and Adah move into a new home, Orleanna begins gardening, something she never did when Nathan was around. During the girls’ childhood, they “never had one flower in [their] yard” and now Orleanna’s entire yard is “surrounded by a blaze of pinks, blues, and oranges.” The flowers in the garden symbolize many things, one being beauty. The flowers symbolize beauty in Orleanna’s life that wasn’t there when Nathan was around. The garden also symbolizes the nurturing of life. The garden wouldn’t grow when Nathan was around, symbolizing how the girls and Orleanna weren’t able to grow and flourish when Nathan was around, because he was holding the women back from living their own lives. Now that Nathan is gone, the garden is blossoming, just like the girls are developing and choosing their own paths in life.

Now that Nathan has died, the title of the entire book begins to make sense. Nathan mistakenly calls Jesus “Poisonwood” by saying “Bängala” the wrong way. Poisonwood is a type of tree in the Congo that if the sap gets on a person, he or she will break out into contagious blisters that can eventually turn into 1^st or 2^nd degree burns if not treated. Metaphorically, the poisonwood in the story is the preaching of Jesus. Nathan didn’t give up preaching to the people about Jesus when they didn’t want to hear it, and ultimately Nathan ended up “getting burned.”