The Poisonwood Bible Blog 5

This week my blog will focus on the life of Ruth May. Ruth May was a very extra ordinary girl. She seemed to bask in the glory of the Congo when she was there. She was surrounded by nature, which she loved. She was by far the most level headed with the situation that they were in. Her sisters were pessimists and her mother started out being an extreme optimist, but Ruth May was definitely a realist. She was able to see what would and what would not come out of them being in the Congo. She knew from the beginning that her father would not be able to handle the task at hand and that he would not be able to walk away from it when the proper time came to. She also knew that Nathan Price was far too involved in his work to ever be affected by their family problems. Ruth May knew and took all of this in, but it did not stop her from loving nature. She was able to enjoy our Creator’s masterpiece from every aspect. She loved the trees, smells, and animals. When it came down to her health spiraling out of control it presented a period of total irony. Ruth May, lover of nature, was plagued with malaria, a disease caused by bugs. And then shortly afterward she dies from snakebite. The irony that fills Ruth May’s health and death is clearly evident. How her family handles her death is surprising. Her father is still obsessed with his work, while his mother is almost emotionally dead. She just walks and walks. She walks away from everything and her girls follow with her.

The Poisonwood Bible (Blog 4) A Family Tragedy

In Loving Memory of…

Ruth May

Ruth May Price, 5 years old, originally from the United States travelled to the Congo to help the Congolese villagers. Ruth May always held a positive outlook on life. She enjoyed being outside and learning more about nature. Ruth May died out back of the family home in Africa due to a Black Mamba Snake bite injury. Leading up to her death she contracted malaria and spent many weeks sick in bed 
with the disease.

Throughout Ruth May’s life she has held animals nearest and dearest to her heart. This past year has been especially remarkable when it comes to animal pets. Owls, snakes, various birds, and even a mongoose have come to call the Price house their home. In Ruth May’s free time she enjoyed walking through nature and spending time with her family.

Ruth May is survived by Mother Orleanna Price, Father Nathan Price, and Sisters Rachel, Adah, and Leah Price. Ruth May is the youngest of her three sisters.

Please join her friends, families, and animals as they celebrate the short life of Ruth May Price on the third day the sun rises out front of the Price family home.
Following the funeral will be a pot luck by the river and everyone is asked to please bring a dish to pass.

The Poisonwood Bible (Blog #3) (Week 3)

Rachel Price is by far the most self centered, egotistical, and narcissistic person in the price family, with the exception of Reverend Nathan Price, their father. Everything that Rachel thinks about is how rough the Congolese people have it and how much they actually need to learn before they can become good enough to be considered a true and real culture. This mentality she clearly gets from her father. Reverend Nathan is very set on his ways about changing the Congo into “God Loving” people. Nathan is the type of guy who automatically assumes he is correct and knows that this is what he was put on earth to do. Because of his war experiences and how his entire brigade lost their lives but he was saved he took it as a sign from God himself. Nathan believes that it is his duty to teach God’s word at any and all cost. Rachel knows that her father means well, but can’t help but also think to herself that she shouldn’t be wrapped up in any of this because she is better that it. When the swarm comes through the village everyone must run to the river to stay alive. In the process, Rachel drops and breaks her mirror. The mirror, in actuality, resembles Rachel’s narcissism. Now that it is broken and she cannot look and admire herself she may be able to open her eyes to the beauty of the Congo and Congolese people around her. Also in the swarm, Orleanna must make the decision of which child she must help. On one hand there is Ruth May. Ruth is very sick with malaria because she did not take her medication, but on the other hand there is Adah. Adah is crippled from birth and struggles to walk as it is. Orleanna quickly makes the decision to grab Ruth May. Adahis sickened. She feels as though she has been betrayed by her own mother. She always knew that she was a burden to her family because of her condition, but to be left on the ground in the middle of chaos was a true slap in the face.

Adah's Perspective

The Poisonwood Bible

Adah’s Perspective of the Congo

The Price family is comprised of six people: Orleanna, Nathan, Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May. Each and every one of the family members has their own unique characteristics and opinions about the African Congo. Reverend Nathan is obsessed with bringing change to the people of Africa and showing them the correct way to seek God. Rachel is tired of being in the Congo and judges every person she sees there with her Western ways. Adah, though, is very different. Adah is Leah’s twin sister. Adah looks at everything with a totally different perspective than other people. She was born crippled so she knows that she is unique and it can be seen in the way she views the African Congo. Because Adah is a twin and crippled she likes to feel as though she is different than every other person in the family. She even has her own “backward code” language. By using this “coded” language she reveals to the readers that she views herself as almost incompetent to speak the same language as the rest of the family. Even when she speaks about herself as a twin she calls herself a “niwt” instead because she doesn’t have the self-worth to use the same word for herself as she does her sister. During the duration that she is dragging herself in the jungle she notices many different animals and natural features such as: elephants, and streams, and waterfalls. She also notices how the women work as they have their babies. She admires their work ethic and how they all go about their day. When Adah got back from the jungle she decided to relax and take a nap in the hammock. Tata Ndu found blood by the tiger and thought that Adah was killed by the tiger. He was ectatic about his finding because he though God was sending the village a sign to not listen to the Prices teachings. Adah decided to rain on his parade by getting out of the hammock and setting everyone straight. She began to notice how the villagers washed clothes and showered and cleaned and drank. She noticed their system. The Congolese people know more about hygiene than the Prices do at this point. They wash their clothes downstream, bathe in the middle, and drink above. They baptize and carry out communion on their own system. Adah is starting to admire how the villagers use and have their own system. She is beginning to realize that the Congolese people do not need help in anyway because they already know how to manage themselves. Adah is, by far, the most mature and open eyed person in the Price family.

Young Goodman Brown Question 1

Young Goodman Brown represents humans and human nature. He is tempted to enter the forest, which symbolizes sin. He becomes more and more curious until he finally snaps and ascends further and further into the dark forest. The man who meets Young Goodman Brown in the forest is the devil and his staff a serpent. Goodman Brown becomes more and more curious about what is happening around the forest and decides to fall into the devils temptation. He has lost touch with his Faith and faith. But the devil draws nearer and nearer to Goodman Brown, now teasing his vision. Young Goodman Brown snaps out of it and begins to pray to the heavens when all of a sudden fire has broken out on the trees and a huge black cloud blocks the night sky. Goodman Brown has allowed himself to be engulfed by the evil. In the midst of everything he picks out the priest and other townspeople that he has met at the communion table rioting at the tavern.  Amongst all of the chaos Goodman Brown is drawn out of the hectic-ness and hears his dear Faith and her pink ribbon, but it is far too late to turn back to her. He has seen too much and done far enough. “Faith! Faith!” he yells, but it is too late to save himself.  Then Young Goodman Brown awakes from his terrible dream and is not so much a “Good-Man” anymore. He has been consumed by what he witnessed from his dream. He has realized that people are all tempted and that in someway or another each and every person falls into temptation in one way or another. The theme of the story is to hold on to your Faith and to not fall into the temptations the devil throws your way because there will definitely be bumps and troubles in your way through life.

Soldiers' Home

Krebs uses repetition to escape the family home, at least for a while. When asked about the war from his family he quickly avoids the question by either staying neutral while not answering or answering with a sarcastic answer such as “I’ll try and be a good boy for you”. He has a very difficult time being paired back into his childhood home after the war. Even the girls were different. Yes the girls especially. They “grew up”, something that Krebs never got to do on his own. Krebs was forced to grow up because of the war. Krebs wanted to look at the girls but nothing more. The thought of being social made Krebs very nervous and paranoid. He always thought that they would bring up the war, every single one of them. That’s what he thought anyway because of the patterns he noticed. They all had “hair cut short,” had “sweaters and shirt waists with round Dutch collars,” and had “silk stockings and flat shoes.” Yes, Krebs noticed these odd patterns. And he did not like them. He wanted the German girls back. Krebs was uncomfortable with speaking, thinking, and even looking at people- even his own mother. Krebs tended to lie to his mother to comfort her into thinking that he was alright after the war. She knew that something was off with him, but didn’t know the true reason. She once asked him if he loved her and he simply said no. Krebs was truthful with his no because he really doesn’t know how to love, and if he does he is too scared to attach to someone. His mother was obviously discouraged and sobbing. He then lied to her and told her he did. Lying was something that Krebs has taken a knack for. Krebs has come to realization that lying may be easier than dealing with the reality, the fact that he has been to war and seen things that are unimaginable.

Story of an Hour

The Story of an Hour is a short story written by Kate Chopin in 1894. Chopin was a literary genius when it came to embedding clues that foreshadow the ending. Chopin either states the clues directly or sneakily hides them within the text from her story.

The most apparent element of foreshadowing is the very first sentence. Yes, Mrs. Mallard had “heart trouble”. Of course it isn’t just a small tumor or anything like that. It is heart disease, heart disease that was caused by her husband.

The fifth paragraph is also filled with foreshadowing. With such intense details such as “new spring life”, “breath of rain”, and “countless sparrows”. Mrs. Mallard is noticing every detail of her surroundings. She is not struck with guilt or pain from her husband’s death, but rather the opposite. She is filling her life with happy thoughts. This tells us that Mrs. Mallard had a hard love life and that she never truly loved him.
“She knew that she would weep again,” and she was right. This single line out of the entire short story reveals to the readers that her remorse will return. By Mrs. Mallard telling us that she will “weep again” we can infer that Mr. Mallard will come back into her life.

From every foreshadowing clue throughout the story, before the reader gets to the ending, he or she should be able to predict that Mr. Mallard will step back into Mrs. Mallard’s life. As for the death of Mrs. Mallard, the heart disease got the best of her.