Lit Circle Notes: Exodus

In our discussion about the chapter, Exodus, in The Poisonwood Bible, we talked and reflected about all of the following events, themes, issues and other significant concepts in the chapter.

We first talked about the three different girls. We realized that Leah is totally apart from her father, who she wanted to be so close to in the beginning. We brought up that from her experience in the Congo, Rachel became more independent, self-reliant, and responsible, which helped her move on in her life. We discussed how Adah struggles to accept her new self because she misses her abnormalities that were and are very much part of her identity. She searches for love from her mother when she asks her why she chose to save her. All the girls feel grief from the incidents, which happened in the Congo. Each girl has many questions about their lives and tries to find ways to deal with her grief and insecurity in order to redeem her self.

Further we discussed that Orleana felt that she had to get Adah safely back to the United States in order to cope with her own grief. She felt it was necessary to protect Adah because she, a mother, loves her children from the bottom up. Adah may have been hiding behind her disability before. We see that she has had a longing desire and need by to be loved by her mother. This is fulfilled when she calls her mother and asks her why she chose to save her.

The book also makes a parallel between Patrice Lumumba and Ruth May Price. They both died on January 17, 1961, after which, both the Congo and the Price family started to fall apart. Lumumba and Ruth May both have an innocence in that they both wanted to help the people around them from the good of their hearts.

Throughout the book Nathan Price was a headstrong, stubborn character that risked his family to try to spread his way of the Bible to the people of the Congo. When he dies in the book, he can also be seen as a martyr because goes to such lengths as to die for his religion. However in some terms he had received what he deserved and his own verse as well. The verse ends with “so this will be the end” (487), which represents the death of Nathan Price and brings the girls the realization that he is no longer part of their lives. Nathan’s death is also like the crucifixion. Both of them were raised in the air for all to see and killed by those opposing them.

We also focused on something Leah said, “We’re all co-conspirators here. I mean, all of us, not just my family. So what do you do now?” It first brings up the idea that while they may have never acted harmfully, all those in Africa that stood witness to the events taking place were not innocent, and that they were all responsible and all died to some degree together. It also extends to the reader, who has also witnessed the events through the story told in The Poisonwood Bible and who has also been given some of the responsibility. Also, all of us, as citizens of the world are pressed with these global, political, and poverty issues. Like in Singer and Kravinsky’s articles, after the information has become available to us, the question is what we are going to do in response to the knowledge or experience we now have.

Lit Circle- Lexicographer

Our English class is having another Literature circle to discuss the chapter The Song of Three Children in Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible. This is a list of words and phrases used in this chapter along with definitions and possible explanations.

Achetez un cadeau pour votre fils – buy a present for your son
beto nki tutsala? – What are we doing?
boudoir – a woman’s bedroom or private sitting room
bottleflies – common blowflies, found in most parts of the world, slightly larger than houseflies
cadeux – present
civets – carnivorous cat-like mammals that have extended muzzles and are native to most of the Old World Tropics
cornea – a transparent part of the eye, which externally coats the iris and the pupil
elephantiasis – a chronic filarial disease that causes enlargement and hardening of cutaneous tissues and lymphatic obstruction.
Eros – an ancient Greek god, paralleled by the Roman god, Cupid.
filaires – small roundworms carried as mosquito larva which become parasitic when
frangipani flowers – plumeria
Great Rift Valley – a large geological feature that runs from Syria to Mozambique, which was formed due to a process called rifting
Guinea worms – an infection caused by drancuculus parasites
Gullah – an African American people who live in the south of America
Her character is meant to be corrupt, manipulative, and abusive.
Jezebel – a woman character that appears in the Hebrew Scriptures and the Holy Bible.
present in the blood of vertebrae in adult form (filaria)
mbika vines – any type of plant in the gourd, melon, squash family
mbote – hello or goodbye
microbes – a microscopic organism, typically disease causing bacteria
muntu – a state of existence, living, dead, or unborn
pagnes – a piece of clothe to wrap around the body
palmetto – a palm having fan shaped leaves
Pour vous, madame – for you, ms.
red laterite – a form of reddish soil or clay
schistosomiasis – an infection caused by parasitic flukes commonly found in tropical regions transmitted by feces polluted water or snails. It can cause, pain, anemia, and malfunction of the infected organ.
tuberculosis – an infectious disease that can affect almost any tissue of the body and especially damaging to the lungs

“Death is the common right of Toads and Men. Why swagger?” (527)
Swagger might possibly suggest hesitation but might also refer to the way that Adah used to walk. Death introduces the idea that all life will eventually die.

“Lock, stock, and barrel” (531)
A common phrase used to mean in completion. It was derived from Charlevill muskets that were used in the American Revolutionary. The muskets were shipped from France in three different parts, lock, stock, and barrel, which had to be assembled when they arrived in America.

Lit Circle- Historian

Our English class is having another Literature circle to discuss the chapter Exodus in Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible. This is a historical summary of the events in history taking place during this book of the novel.

Exodus starts in the year 1961 when Patrice Lumumba was arrested and murdered in mid-February. The secession of Katanga, a region of Congo valued heavily for its resources, caused upraise between UN forces and the Katangese. Kasavubu, Tshombe, Kimba and Mobutu, constantly found themselves in a struggle for power over Congo. U.S. arms, Belgian troops, and white mercenaries helped Congo’s central government gradually regain control.

By 1966, Tshombe had fled to Spain, Kasavubu was dismissed by Mobutu, Kimba was defeated, and Mobutu appointed himself president. He abolished the office of prime minister and established a presidential system in the Congo. The US heavily backed Mobutu because he opposed communism. He renamed all cities and landmarks to African names in an “African Authenticity” reform. In 1971, he changed country’s name to Zaire. Zaire refers to the Kikongan word nzere or nzadi, which means “the river that swallows all rivers” but is pronounced Zaire in Portuguese.

The government was strongly guided by Mobutu for a while. He strongly tried to improve the state of his country and increase good foreign relations. However there was dispute over the fact that he gave jurisdiction of security matters only to people of his own ethnicity. There were many other accounts of corruption with in the government. In the year 1984, it was said that Mobutu had four billion US dollars in his Swiss Bank account, a close sum to the country’s national debt.

During the late 1970’s, many groups opposing Mobutu were established, consisting mostly of rebellious Katangese people. A large organization was the Front Libération Nationale du Congo (FNLC). They invaded Zaire from their base in Angola, but were defeated by French and Belgium troops and exiled from the country. In the 1980’s there was much agitation between students and soldiers. Opposition became heavily organized and those opposed, hoped to eventually overthrow Mobutu.

After the Soviet Union collapsed, relations between the US and Kinshasa, the former Leopoldville, eased. The US no longer needed Mobutu as an ally in the Cold War. However this also increased demands from opposing groups within Zaire, for Mobutu to reform the country.

Free Post

The chapel the other day really made me think. I never realized how much of a loser Jesus must have felt like, and how much people must have seen him as one at the time. I also didn’t realize how encouraging it is that Jesus was a loser. This idea I think was meant to give us hope that when we feel like losers, we can remember that Jesus, felt like a loser too.

Chaplain Hamada told us this story of his days of youth when he fell in love with a girl. They became very close they cared about each other a lot. However, after a while, she told him that she couldn’t be with him any longer. Later he found out that the reason she could not be with him any more was because her parents were uncomfortable with the fact that she was Caucasian and he was Japanese.

His story is well taken, and the idea that they could not be together because of ethnicity is powerful. However, I also believe that it can somewhat be used as an excuse. He does not have to pry himself a part thinking that she actually didn’t like him. I believe that rejection with no excuses is much harder to deal with because they make you question yourself.

My friend has told me that he has been on a losing streak for about two years. However, I admire him for this. Mostly because he puts him self out there, to be judged, rejected or ridiculed. I believe that that takes a lot of courage, which is why I admire him. I try to help him see this, but I know that it can be very difficult.

My brother however always has an interesting way of looking at things. One of his favorite quotes is, "It's easy to be humble, anyone can do it. Only an idiot with a crazy dream would take on the title of 'strongest'-- take it on himself to carry that type of crazy responsibility." I also believe that individuals who can use this approach are very strong because after numerous failures and evidence that they are not strong, they still have faith in themselves. I believe that that mental and emotional capacity is powerful.

Essential Question Cycle 21 Response 1

I saw Puccini’s Madama Butterfly when Hawaii Opera Theatre was playing it this last opera season. My parents thought that I should definitely go because it is part of the opera canon. I was already vaguely familiar with the plot because I saw Miss Saigon when it came to Hawaii around six years ago, but that was a long time ago. In both productions, the heroine of the story lives in an Asian country. An American soldier falls in love with her during the war. They get married, and she is impregnated. The American soldier goes back to America not knowing that she is expecting a child. He promises her that he will come back soon, but instead settles down with an American woman. When he eventually returns to the Asian country with his wife, he finds that she has been waiting all this time with his child. In desperation, the heroine of the story commits suicide and the American family is left to take car of the child. The actor in both the productions I saw vividly portrayed the character’s grief and anguish.

Watching Madama Butterfly made me think about my essential question. I thought about how one woman’s anguish is kept in a beautiful opera, telling her story decades later. It made me think about how all that emotion is stored and that the woman is immortalized in this story. I also realized that because a similar story is told in Miss Saigon, that many other woman have found them selves in similar situations and felt similar emotions in history. I wondered if these stories also captured the lives of these women as well as the grief and anguish that they also felt. I also wondered if it stopped here. I wondered if the stories representation stopped at women from Asian countries who have felt grief or anguish because of complications due to love for American soldier who they met during the war. But I thought, if the production did not end its representation here where would it? I wondered whether this production could immortalize all individuals who have ever felt similarly to the heroine of the story. I wasn’t sure if this was possible, but I am sure that these productions are a way to immortalize the events of history and the grief and anguish of such individuals affected by these events in history.

Lit Circle Notes: Bel and the Serpent

After reading the Book Bel and the Serpent from The Poisonwood Bible, our class had a literature circle and discussed the following.

We first talked about Ruth May’s death and how Nathan Price reacted. Nathan Price’s reaction was not as sentimental as the reaction of everyone else. After her death, his main comment is that he wished she had been baptized before she died. We felt that he took advantage of Ruth May’s death as an opportunity to baptize the children of Kilango. We also felt that the daughters felt some resentment toward their father because of his reaction to Ruth May’s death.

We thought that Rachel seemed the most concerned about Ruth May’s death. It is also an earth-shattering event to Rachel because she realizes that she can never just forget or block out the part of her life that she leads in the Congo. We also felt that Adah felt closer to Ruth May after she died because she can see Ruth May’s life like a palindrome. Also that Adah feels closer to Ruth May because they both are like eyes watching the family. This is important for Adah, because she always felt somewhat of an outcast from the rest of her family, but now she can relate to Ruth May.

Orleana’s reaction however was very calm and collected. She completely drew within herself, and it seemed like there was nothing left in her. She had been so drained that she had no emotional drive to kick or scream and she completely gives up. It seems that her experience in the Congo put her through so much that she can no longer feel anything.

We also felt that the Price family learns more in the silence after Ruth May dies, than anywhere else in the story so far.

Important words from this book were bantu, which means people or a group of people, and muntu, which an entity or being (living, unborn, or dead). This is relevant to this chapter because when Ruth May dies, the idea rises of existence, physical, spiritual, and her as an entity watching the family. Another important word is nkento, which means woman. Nelson uses this word to insult Gybene because it is a huge insult in Kilangan culture.

We also brought up religion and politics and the role they play in this book. Nathan Price, in one of his attempt to impress his ideas on the Kilangan people, introduces to them the idea of democracy. However, it backfires at him, when the Kilangan people decide to vote on whether they want Jesus, and Jesus looses. Religion and politics are two important ideas in The Poisonwood Bible and it is symbolic to see that when the two mix, they blow up in the face of Nathan Price.

The title of this book is very significant. In the story Bel and the Serpent, a group of monks create a false idol named Bel. As people give offerings to Bel, the monks steal the offerings and use them for their own means. The people in The Poisonwood Bible follow this story to find the person who is putting fake curses on people using green mamba snakes. We discussed that Serpent could represent the monks as well as Tata Kuvundu, because both create false idols. Bel however could represent Nathan Price, Tata Kuvundu, or Tata Ndu, because all act like false idols.