Lit Circle #5 Psychological Critic

For book 6: Song of the Three Children and book 7: The Eyes in the Trees, in The Poisonwood Bible, I am the psychological critic which means I have to observe how the characters' minds work.

Rachel:
In book six: Song of the Three Children, Rachel is now fifty years old. And as a result she has changed drastically. Throughout her childhood, she had been completely helpless; she couldn’t even cook an egg omelet. However, now she successfully runs her own hotel. In fact, the work she put into her hotel has allowed her to develop a love for the hotel that she never had with any of her family; she feels bound to the hotel since she worked on it so much. Even though she changed a lot, Rachel still is extremely self-centered. She still has refused to truly adapt to Africa, even though she lives there. Also, she still believes in the book she had read that had told of how to survive dangerous scenarios by using other people, like a parasite. In fact, her hotel that she treasures so much is the result of this very thinking. She also still misses America and the lifestyle she left behind, but since she now has a calling in Africa she can’t go back. I’m still disappointed that Rachel still hasn’t developed a sense of empathy and still thinks that people exist to be used. However, at least she has developed a love for something other than herself, even if it is just a hotel.

Adah:
Adah’s change mainly comes from the correction of her handicap. She now can communicate and as a result we can see the personal side of Adah, which is completely different from her poetic observations that we were so accustomed to. Her love for books and poetry still remains, but her fascination with palindromes has nearly disappeared. This is probably because she can now protect herself with her own hands and doesn’t need to protect herself with her palindromes. If we look at her emotions, we see that she sees everything as equal, from humans to viruses. And as a result, she studies viruses not to rid the world of their evil, but because she admires them. Also, she feels that people like her only for her new body, and as a result she pushes them away. In this sense, she is similar to Rachel because they both do not believe in human relationships anymore. Instead, they fill their empty lives with their work; Rachel tends her hotel and Adah tends her viruses. This isolation from humans is probably the result of Ruth May’s death, which must have made them unable to create a relationship in fear that it would end as tragically as Ruth May’s death.