Lit Circle #3 Reflection

In class, we discussed Book 4: Bel and the Serpent in The Poisonwood Bible.

The first thing we discussed was Orleanna’s part at the beginning of the book. In the past books, Orleanna had focused on her own troubles and sadness, but in this book, which contained the greatest factor in her sadness (Ruth May’s Death), she focused more on the politics in the Congo, such as the assassination of Lumumba. After that, since the title of this book was, “Bel and the Serpent,” we talked about the story it was named for in the bible. The original story featured a man named, Daniel, who proved to Babylonians that they were worshiping false idols by sprinkling ashes on the ground of the temple to prove that their idol, Bel, wasn’t alive and that the priests were making it appear as if he was alive by eating the gifts for Bel. We then compared this to The Poisonwood Bible, and drew the obvious connection that Tata Kuvundu was like the priests in the story, since he was making it appear as if the gods were angry at the villagers by putting snakes in weird places, since they hadn’t listened to him when he told them to not let Leah participate in a hunt. However, we also discussed the possibility that Nathan was a false idol himself, since he demanded that people listen to his teachings since he considered him the voice of God in the Congo, and it was questionable if he was really doing it to teach them the religion, or to just be worshiped in God’s place. Also, we discussed the significance of the serpent mentioned in the name of the story, and concluded that it could either refer to the sneaky, evil intentions of Tata Kuvundu, or the cunning trap Leah set to catch the culprit of the mysterious snake appearances in the village. We then finished up our discussion about this story by mentioning the purpose of the story being brought up in the book, which was an attempt from Nathan to slander Tata Kuvundu by calling him a fake, which in the long run, gave Leah the idea that caused Ruth May’s death. We then proceeded on and began discussing the reactions of the Price family towards Ruth May’s death. We first talked about Rachel’s reaction. After Ruth May’s death, Rachel says, “I’d never planned on being someone different” (367). This showed that Rachel believed that when she returned home from the Congo, she could go on living, pretending that it never happened. But when Ruth May died, she realized that they could never be the same. This thinking may have also been the reason why she was so reluctant to adapt to the Congo lifestyle. On top of that, she also seemed worried about how her mother would react. This could have either meant that she was worried more about if she was going to be in trouble than the death of her sister, or that she was finally showing true compassion for someone other than herself. We then discussed Leah’s reaction. She appeared very guilty for having shaken Ruth May while she was trying to figure out what was wrong with her. But she mainly was remembering things about Ruth May. These are both very normal responses to the death of a loved one. Adah’s reaction towards Ruth May’s death greatly reflected her personality. She said that even though she hadn’t seen the birth of Ruth May, she had now since she believed it was the same as her death but in reverse, like a palindrome. She also created a palindrome poem to protect herself, since creating palindromes is one of the only powers she has. Nathan’s reaction wasn’t really out of sadness, and he seemed more concerned that she wasn’t baptized than the fact that she was dead. He even used her death and the ensuing rain as means to baptize the children that came to Ruth May’s funeral. Finally, we discussed Orleanna’s reaction, which was very interesting. She didn’t seem to surprised by Ruth May’s death, as if she was expecting it all along. We then discussed who was to blame for Ruth May’s death. Tata Kuvundu appeared to be the one to blame, since he brought the snake that killed Ruth May, however, Leah could also be blamed for deciding to bring Ruth May along to help Nelson, and Nathan could be blamed since he brought them to the Congo in the first place and introduced the idea of the ashes from telling the story of Bel and the Serpent out of spite towards Tata Kuvundu. Also, we discussed the differences of bantu and muntu. After discussing it, we inferred that bantu referred to the bodies of humans, whereas muntu referred to their spirits, which is why it refers to both living and dead humans.
Overall, this book was very important, since it revealed the personalities of all of the Price family and held a lot of very significant events in very few pages. I found the interpretations of the reactions of the different members of the Price family after Ruth May’s death to be very interesting, especially Adah’s palindrome, which held her only power to protect herself. Despite having a good discussion, I am still curious to know Nathan’s true feelings towards Ruth May’s death, since you never get to read what he is thinking and can only judge his emotions through his actions, which although cold, may be masking his sadness.