Book One: GenesisOrleanna Price begins narrating the story of her and her children trudging through a forest. She describes herself as, "Southern Baptist by marriage, mother of children living and dead." This implies that maybe her religious views aren't necessarily hers, but that of her husband. She is the mother of four girls who she is with in the forest. Kingsolver uses vivid imagery and many descriptive words to give the reader an accurate depiction of where the story is taking place, as if the reader were there as well. Orleanna switches throughout the first passage from a first person P.O.V (speaking of herself and her travels using "I") to a third person P.O.V (speaking as if she were watching the accounts, referring to herself as "she"). She also mentions how the passage is directed to "you", referring to her favorite child. Her interaction with the okapi seems important. The story is taking place in the 1960's, the time of Kennedy and space travel. Orleanna describes her husband as unloving. Contrary to her daughter's beliefs that their mother has no life of her own due to her controlling husband, Orleanna states that she very much so has a life of her own, she just chooses to keep quiet. The big question she poses is, "How do we aim to live with it [referring to one's own fortune]?" She replies that the answer lies within individuals (her daughters) and how they live throughout the story.
The Price family lived in Bethlehem, Georgia, and I believe their town's name is no coincidence, that it is supposed to relate to the little town of Bethlehem that is mentioned in the Bible. When at the airport, the Price's are forced to leave some belongings in GA, as the airlines only allow 44lbs of luggage per person. The family arrives in Kilanga, Africa to be greeted by the Underdowns, a missionary couple that was already stationed in Africa. Nathan Price's reluctance to take help from them depicts that he is a man who is very self-oriented and believes he can accomplish what he needs to on his own. Leah Price, the teller of the event is one of the twins who seems to adore her father and is excited and interested in traveling to Africa, on what the family believes to be a 12-month missions trip. She describes her older sister Rachel as very vain and focused mainly on her own appearance.
Kingslover accurately depicts the children's ages through the diction that she uses in their passages. In Ruth May's passage, it is obvious that she is a curious, young girl who is somewhat naiive to the rest of the world. Ruth explains the racial prejudices through the words of a 5-year-old, as well as who the other people are that are with her and her family in the Congo.
It is evident in Rachel's passage that she is in fact very vain and overall self-absorbed. She views the natives as lower than she, and treats them as if they are dumb and incapable of understanding what her father and the others have to say. Rachel views herself as even more knowledgeable than her father. While the rest of the family goes along with the welcome service and dinner that the natives put on, both Rachel and her father are terribly concerned with the fact that the natives are naked. Though that is their custom and the Price's are the ones intruding, Nathan goes on to preach about the sins of being naked, prompting the natives to clothe themselves before they continue.
Adah's accounts are vivid, explained in everything she sees in the village. She speaks in shorter, less structured sentences than the other girls but describes everything in intense detail. She shows little adoration for her father and rather depicts him as just someone who she is forced to travel with. Adah has hemiplegia, a handicap which paralyzed half of her body. She blames this on her twin Leah, claiming she "cannibalized" her in the womb and holds a very blunt, cynical outlook on life.
As the other sisters stayed inside due to fears of the outdoors, Leah readily helped Nathan outside, wanting to please her father. Nathan wanted to plant a garden, the whole time preaching to Leah the scripture. At this point in the story Leah introduces Mama Bekwa Tataba, who was supposed to be helping the Price's as she did Brother Fowles, another missionary who was deemed crazy for having relations with the natives on his mission. Mama Bekwa has a parrot named Methuselah. As Nathan and Leah work, she continually criticized their gardening, using broken English to tell them it was pointless and would not grow. She also warned Nathan about the Poisonwood tree, referencing the name of the book. She stated how it was dangerous, but he did not heed her warnings and ended up with a rash and injuries, as well as the beginnings of an unsuccessful garden. Leah states her admiration for her father and his wisdom, as well as the story of how he was wounded in war and has lived a hard life.
Rachel once again shows her disgust with the people of the village and the concentration she has on her own appearance. She reprimands the villagers for dressing and looking the way they do, complaining that the main issue she was having was the lack of new clothes for her on Easter. Nathan decided to have Easter on the Fourth of July in order to get across to the people. He wanted to baptize them in the Kwilu River, but no one will go near it because of crocodiles. Nathan rejects their fear and continues to try to lure them to be baptized. Nothing works until Orleanna cooks a large feast by the river, which is the closest the natives are willing to get to it. It seems that Rachel and Nathan have the most in common, both of them self-oriented in their distinct ways (Rachel with her appearance and materialistically, and Nathan with trying to "purify" the village).
Though Ruth May is the youngest, she seems to be the most perceptive of her surroundings. She sees all kinds of people and begins to formulate opinions and descriptions of them in her head. She also listens to the conversations the adults have and puts together her own knowledge of the village and its people. She also recognized the way her parents speak, how her father has little respect for her mother. With that she also puts together that her mother is the wisest of the Congo and the family itself.
Adah is introverted, for the most part due to her handicap. She finds peace and happiness in analyzing life around her as well as reading the books over and over again. She is very smart, though she doesn't really speak or express it. She feels that she is the reject of the family and always the last pick for anything, and highly resents her sisters, but mostly just Leah, her twin. She finds Leah to be the most loved in the family, which she despises, making it evident through her harsh words against her twin. She has found pleasure, as the other girls have, in playing around with Methuselah, the parrot, who has a dirty mouth from his previous owner Brother Fowels. If one of the girls says something bad, their punishment is to be given "The Verse" which is a Bible verse which they had to recite. The garden Leah and Nathan had planted had failed, though Nathan still tried to revive it.
Rachel was turning 16 and Orleanna wanted to have a party for her and bake her the cake they brought over, but it had gone bad due to humidity. However, she still wanted to throw Rachel a sweet 16 party. Methuselah cursed a word that Nathan hadn't heard before, and he assumed it were either Rachel or Leah, when it was really Orleanna. The two girls wanted to protect their mother, so they chose to accept the punishment of the Verse instead of tell the truth. This was not the first time the girls had to protect Orleanna from Nathan.
During one of Nathan's preachings. Adah notices that the crowd is not very amused. She herself begins to think about other things, her mind questioning her father and the Bible. She begins to think of how dumb some of the Bible people are and starts to think from a non-religious point of view. Her father preaches on, belittling the people of Africa, mostly the women, through his preachings. When they arrive home after the service, Orleanna speaks out against one of Nathan's points and he becomes upset, belittling her like he did the other Africans.
The garden Nathan planted continued to grow, but failed to produce fruit. This is due, Nathan thinks, to the lack of proper insects to pollinate the foreign plants. Leah tries to explain that maybe they should've brought bees too, but Nathan rejects any ideas she has and continues to mourn over the garden. Mama Tataba and Nathan got into a dispute, and she left the family to fend for themselves, but not before telling the girls how to cook. The dispute was about a little girl who had died in the river that Nathan wanted to baptized people in. Her leaving and this news upset Nathan and when Methuselah spoke, Nathan was so outraged that he cursed, then proceeded to grab the parrot out of its cage and let it go and be free so that he would be rid of it.
Book Two: The Revelation
Mrs. Price thinks back to Africa and is reminded of it constantly. She thinks back to the day that Mama Tataba and Methuselah left their house and how hard things became afterwards. Orleanna had to become the chef for the family and had to learn on her own how to cook for them as well as the other village children. This was hard on her as she had no help and desired Mama Tataba back. On top of having to take care of the family mainly on her own, Nathan was going through a conflict with Tata Ndu, the village chief. He was telling the village to resent Nathan's teachings because he fed children to the crocodiles. Nathan and Tata Ndu agreed to meet and speak. They came to the agreement that the people could be baptized, but only by sprinkling. Nathan accepted this but continued to press that Tata Ndu have only one wife, which he was outraged about. The meeting was halfway successful, but after that Nathan became even more absorbed and obsessed with his mission and began paying less and less attention to his family. This hit them hard, especially Leah who was so close to her father.
Leah and Adah are now 15 and Leah is beginning to grow less optimistic about the missions trip and her father. She and the girls have learned from the natives how to speak the language a bit and what certain things are. Leah becomes terribly frustrated that she doesn't know the language they speak fluently and that she can't communicate with them. Ruth May, on the other hand, plays a game of "Mother May I?" with the other children and seems to get along just fine with them, while communicating with them as well. Since Leah doesn't really have any friends there, she decides to go spy on Axelroot, the scummy pilot that only takes bribes and isn't the nicest man. After Ruth May's game, one boy stayed back and Leah confronted him. Though the boy, Pascal, was much younger than Leah, the two got along well and Leah invited him inside to have a taste of powdered milk which Pascal returned with showing Leah a bird's nest in a tree. The two were fast friends and Leah became furious that her father raised her as a white preacher's daughter from Georgia.
Ruth May broke her arm by falling from a tree while spying on the "African communist boy scouts." She was taken to the doctor by Axelroot to get it fixed. On the trip there, Ruth finds out Axelroot is smuggling diamonds and he threatens her to keep quiet. The doctor who fixed Ruth's arm was a very outspoken man. While tending to Ruth, he and Nathan spoke of many of the political and social issues in Africa, thinking that Ruth wouldn't pay any attention. They speak of college, which Nathan resents stating that he had all girls and none of them were meant for college, which stuck with Ruth. The whole time she absorbs every word, not putting up any type of fuss. This displays Ruth's personality as tough and observant. After they arrive home, Ruth takes Leah to where she fell and they both spied on the Congolese boys, listening to their chants of, "Patrice Lumumba!" which Ruth recognized from the doctor's conversation with her father. Ruth refers to herself as a green mamba snake, referencing how cunning she sees herself.
Anatole is a schoolteacher in the Congo who the Price's have over for dinner. He was raised by the Underdowns and is educated and knows four different languages. He is even the translator for Nathan's sermons. Rachel is excited simply because he is the first educated boy she has really met in Africa. She does not particularly like him, but she is fascinated by the accurate, thin scars across his face. Over dinner, Anatole begins speaking with Nathan about the desires of the village and how Tata Ndu thinks Nathan's teachings are hurting the village and angering the traditional gods. Nathan is outraged at this idea and Anatole and him have a heated debate over dinner. Nathan was very disrespectful and not accepting of Anatole's messages and after he left, Orleanna tried to reprimand him for it. Nathan replied by yelling and grabbing at her and smashing her favorite platter she was so attached to and belittling her and her cooking. This shut Orleanna down, resulting in her submission to Nathan and his controlling ways.
Adah found enjoyment in exploring the village and examining the wildlife there, and found that walking around improved her mobility. She also enjoyed reading some of Brother Fowel's books on her own. She often followed Methuselah around as well. She found comfort in walking by herself and did not have many fears of the forest. Every day Orleanna would send Leah and Adah to fetch water but Leah would always grow impatient and go back alone, leaving Adah by herself. One day they went to fetch water and Leah left, leaving Adah to follow Methuselah for a bit. She lost sight of him but heard noises behind her. She got worried but couldn't go much faster due to her handicap. When she finally got home she found Tata Ndu confidently telling her family that she had been eaten by a lion, a somewhat pleased look on his face. They had found a large male lion following the tracks of, "the little girl who drages her right foot." She thought he was pleased because this might show her family that they were unwelcome by the gods of the village. Orleanna was the only one who seemed to truly understand Tata Ndu, and she became upset and distraught. While Nathan prayed for his "lost daughter," Adah came out to Tat Ndu's displeasure and showed that she was not dead. This upset him because he did not like being wrong.
Anatole sends a young boy, Nelson, to work for the Price family. Leah reflects on the idea of growing up and marrying and how Rachel has always been so sure of herself but Leah and Adah on the other hand weren't as gifted in the department of womanhood. Leah also speaks of how upset she is that she has to recite the Verse because she left Adah behind when they got water. Leah is becoming less and less excited with her life in Africa and expresses this through her manor of speech. There is an outbreak of diseases and Leah catches malaria but heals. Orleanna is terrified of the diseases, so she gives the girls sewing projects to keep them inside and out of the way of contagion. This is designed for the girl's hope chests but quickly comes to a halt because Rachel is much more gifted and used the tablecloth material while the other girls struggled to even finish their projects.
Nelson and Ruth become good friends and work together to get the eggs from the chicken coop. Orleanna is terrified for the girls about catching diseases and warns them to stay away from the children because they all have it. Leah found an owl and kept it as a pet, which Nelson disagreed with but let Leah keep it anyway. A good portion of the village started going to church, and Nelson explained to Ruth that in African culture, most people have individual gods watching over them. Ruth states repeatedly in her passages her fear of death and snakes.
On a surprise visit, the Underdowns visited from the states, bringing a newspaper with them. The Price's were happy to finally have some American company, the girls especially. Soon after they arrived they revealed that the real reason they came was to tell the Price's that the Congo was going to gain independence and that their mission would no longer be funded for and they should return home where it was safe. Rachel seemed excited and pleased for this but Orleanna argued with Mr. Underdown about the mission and how the Mission League was abandoning them and how they were not done with the mission. Mr. Underdown continually prompted that they should leave, but Nathan refused because his mission was not done, stating that he and his family would stay.
Adah continues her accounts speaking in a way of what seems almost like poetry. Her cynical outlook continues, speaking of the death in the village and the lack of faith she has had since she was young. She speaks of how she has adapted to the language of Kilanga and developed her own sense of words and language. Times are getting tougher on the Price family as they await the election.
It has just been found out that Patrice Lumumba will be the new prime minister of the Congo. Rachel is getting increasingly worked up over the idea of going home. The Underdowns, who usually send supplies for the Prices, only sent a letter this time letting the Price's know of the date and time of their evacuation departure. Nathan is still upset with them and refuses to leave.
The Underdowns sent a plane to pick up the Price's and their belongings and Leah and Nathan took the plane home, but only to satisfy the Underdowns until they return, leaving their belongings and the rest of the family there. Orleanna laid in bed and would not get up after the flight. Rachel tried to get on the plane but Nathan wouldn't let her, so she threatened to drown herself in the river.
Leah and Nathan go to Leopoldville on the plane with the Underdowns to witness the inauguration of Lumumba. During the speech Leah has Mrs. Underdown translate to her, though she is reluctant. Lumumba focuses on Belgium as a counterpart to the Congo and how the oppression is over and he will make the Congo, "The heart of the light."
On June 30th, the Congo gained its independence and Adah finds feathers in a trail near their home. She finds that Methuselah has been killed by a civet cat and says that it was his independence day as well.
Book Three: The Judges
Orleanna feels guilty about how she never stood up to Nathan and how she wanted to tell her daughters why she hadn't. She told the story of her childhood and how she grew up in a big family without a mother (she had died) and talked of how she was never really a religious person and was rather promiscuous with the boys until she met Nathan. She thought he just wanted to bring her to Jesus but her Aunt Tess suggested marrying him, so she did. They picked cotton together, then Nathan got called to take part in WWII in the Philippines where he suffered an injury and was taken back to camp while the rest of his troop were killed. After that he felt horrible that he deserted them and was never the same again, being harsh with Orleanna and dedicates his life to making a ministry somewhere, dragging her with him. He desires sex but blames Orleanna for tempting him and they produce 3 children. Orleanna feels guilty for this, especially since Adah is disabled, but decides to go along with Nathan's wishes anyway.
Leah and Nathan return to their home and the family stops getting money from the missionary fund. Thus, the natives stop paying attention to them and selling them things, aside from Mama Mwanza (who has no legs) who kindly gives them oranges and sometimes eggs. Both Orleanna and Ruth May become very sick, which Nelson says is because they are cursed. Orleanna doesn't leave the house much and Ruth doesn't eat and is always terribly hot.
Adah and Nelson become close and manage to communicate through similar words. Adah has to explain the concept of twins to Nelson through images and simple terms. Nelson is taken aback because African women abandon twins, and he explains that many of the people in her father's church now are women who do not want to abandon their twins and have taken to the American concept of keeping them. This prompts Adah to rename her father's church, "the church of the lost cause."
Ruth is still very sick and talks of how she calls her mother "Mommy Mommy" when Nathan isn't around and how she wishes he'd never come back, but that she misses her sister Leah. She seems to be in a state of conscious dreaming, looking down on the world.
Ruth May and Orleanna remained sick and Nathan did not pay any attention to them, just his preachings. Pascal was the only person who really checked on the family anymore, wanting to play with Leah. The older girls all decided they needed to figure out how to ration and salvage their supplies, since they were running low and didn't have their mother's cooking. Rachel took charge because she was oldest, though not the wisest. Rachel decided she would cook and that the girls would keep Nelson around to help out since he was such a large part of the family.
Leah manages to get Ruth May out of bed to go outside and explore the creatures in their area, like the Lion Ants. Ruth may is willing since she is feeling better and the two go outside to play when Anatole comes up to them. He and Leah talk of politics as well as the possibility of trading Mama Mwanza rabbit stew (Anatole had a rabbit) for the eggs she had. At this point, Leah seems fond of Anatole and the two make small talk about the government and what is going on and Anatole gives Leah a message to relay to her father: that Katanga has seceded. This means there may be war, which frightens Leah. But Anatole reassures her that she will be okay, and she believes Lumumba may be bluffing anyway. When Anatole leaves, Leah is left thinking of him and how he made her feel, as well as the fact that she may lose her sister, Ruth May, to the common sickness that was killing the other children.
Ruth May thinks about the sickness of her and her mother often. She overhears her parents talking of white people getting killed in the Congo and how her mother and sisters want to go home but her father won't let them. She finds comfort in talking with Nelson and he tells her about a match box she had, as if it were her safe place to wish her spirit to, should she die. This is an African idea that once the person passes, their spirit lives on in the object.
Though Ruth May's sickness worsened, Orleanna's sickness got better. Once Rachel burned their eggs and her and Leah got into a dispute, Orleanna suddenly got up and went to Rachel, reprimanding her for not watching her cook all her 16 years and for cursing her father. She told her to serve him the eggs without a fuss and that she would teach her how to cook the next day. This shows a sort of development in Orleanna, that she is getting stronger not only in physical health, but mental as well, finally beginning to stand up for herself and speak out against wrong doings. She also is more determined now than ever to leave Nathan and take the girls out of the Congo. Leah was beginning to question her father's doings in Kilanga more and more, doubting that what he was doing was just and if the girls really needed to be there when they were going through so many trials without his help.
As Rachel is cooking, Reverend Santa (Brother Fowles) pays a visit to the family to check on them, but Leah is somewhat reluctant to listen to his Congolese teachings. She doesn't realize who he is until he is referred to as Tata Fowells. He is there with his wife to bring the family, and the other Congo people, gifts and talk with their family. When Nathan arrives home, he and Brother Fowles exchange preachings and Bible teachings, but Nathan soon becomes frustrated with Fowles' words and tells him to leave. He and his wife do so, but not before giving the Price girls necessities, along with providing for the other villagers and letting Orleanna know that they are staying in Congo as well.
Ruth May's condition worsened. Tata Ndu comes to the Price's home and Orleanna reaches out to him, hoping that he can possibly help Ruth. He doesn't bite, however he does begin giving the family gifts. The Price's believe it is some kind of reconciliation, but Nelson tells Orleanna it is because Tata Ndu wants Rachel for another wife, due to her complexion and hair color. He also realizes the family needs help and that Nathan won't accept it willingly, so he is trying to bargain with Nathan for his daughter.
When Rachel finds out about the marriage proposal, she throws a fit. She begins acting strange and wearing multiple layers of clothing and doing her hair funny. The other sisters are lucky that it wasn't them that Tata Ndu chose, as Nathan shows little regret in trying to sell his daughter. Orleanna is focused on Ruth May and finds that she has been sticking her malaria pills to the wall rather than swallowing them.
Rachel was getting worried about marrying Tata Ndu until she found out about her parent's plan to get her out of the marriage without hurting the village: she would pretend to already be engaged to Mr. Axelroot. Though she resented the idea and despised the man, she went with it so that she would get away from Tata Ndu, and might possibly convince Axelroot to take her back home.
Ruth May is bedridden and delirious. She hears her parents talk about what is going on with Rachel and all the marriages and how Tata Ndu wants to have her in a circus mission, and she is unsure of what's going on. She is upset that everyone is befriending Axelroot, as she knows he is a bad man. She ponders all of the bad things she's done and thinks that if she does die, she'll come back to watch over everyone. This explains her train of thought on things as she's not in the right mind.
Rachel turned 17 but no one remembered her birthday until she finally blurted the date out enough so that her mother knew what day it was. She gave Rachel a pair of her earrings and a bracelet, which she was grateful for. Rachel however was also very upset that her sick sisters took away attention from her on her special day, showing just how shallow she really is.
Adah notices that her father is the only one who seems unchanged in the family, still preaching as he always has. She explains that Rachel and Leah have both begun acting strange with boys; Rachel pretends to be lovey dovey with Axelroot then throws a fit about being engaged, and Leah begins teaching at Anatole's request (he also gave her a bow) and the two seem to be getting much closer. Since she is teaching and behaving differently, Adah is now almost seen as the normal twin.
Anatole and Leah often study together, and Leah holds back the questions she has for him until she gets too curious. She asks him why some of the schoolboys hate her and he explains that in their culture, they are not used to women, let alone white women. They continue to talk of the differences of where they are both from, and Leah tells Anatole about where she came from and different things that he did not know about the world, like it being round. Leah tells Anatole she will make him a globe, and he tells her his reasoning behind translating her father's sermons: that he wants to give the people the knowledge so they can choose, though he himself doesn't necessarily agree with it and focuses more on social aspects of life.
Axelroot would come and go from the village but when he was there, he and Rachel had to act as an engaged couple to show Tata Ndu. They went for a walk and Axelroot gave Rachel a cigarette and they talked and smoked in the forest. At one point, Axelroot took Rachel's cigarette and kissed her-her first kiss. Rachel kissed back but then pushed away, until Axelroot warned her not to make a fuss in front of Ndu. He then told her a secret: that someone in the village was going to die and it was Lumumba. Rachel didn't fully believe this, but it got her wondering if it were true or not.
Adah continues on reading and observing her surroundings and observes that many children have died due to malaria recently and that "the Reverend" (her father) had visited with the mourning mothers. She also hears Axelroot discuss with some friends that Lumumba was going to die. Along with this, she heard some news on the politics that were taking place back in America with Eisenhower.
The nsongonya happened in the village at night; that is, there was an invasion of ants and everyone evacuated the village. Leah was awoken by Nelson and ran for the river with everyone else, leaving her family behind. When Anatole found her and asked about them she said she had been more worried about Mama Mwanza and forgot to get them, so he went back for them himself. This time she feels much worse about leaving Adah, her own twin behind once again.
Orleanna yelled at the children to leave the house but Rachel had to save her mirror before leaving everything else behind. She rampaged through all the people, putting herself first and trying to find a boat to get into, but no one would take her.
Orleanna took Ruth and ran her out to a boat where she found Adah and handed Ruth to a strange Congolese person. Ruth became frightened and thought of Nelson's advice about a safe place and she realized she had stopped thinking about her safe place when she had gotten better, so she made up a new one: a green mamba snake in a tree watching over everyone.
Adah was left behind by Orleanna, because she couldn't keep up and her mother was carrying Ruth. She was eaten alive by the ants but survived, lifted into her mother's boat by Anatole. The two stared but did not speak, and Adah felt that that was the night she began to die.
Anatole arrives in Leah's boat with Ruth asleep over his shoulder and tells her that her family is safe. They begin to talk of the disaster, if it was a sign of God's spite. Leah tells Anatole that Adah thought Eisenhower was going to kill Lumumba and she wanted to know if it was true. They begin to argue about politics and why Leah and her family are there and Leah suggests no one cares about them, but Anatole tells her otherwise. Anatole comforted Leah and two days later they returned to their tattered homes.
Book Four: Bel and the Serpent
American and Belgian governments wanted to remove Lumumba from power in the Congo and hired a man to poison him. Instead, Lumumba was arrested and Mobutu was put in power with the help of the Belgian people. After his house arrest, Lumumba and his family escaped but were captured and Lumumba was taken and beaten alive so badly that his body could not be returned to the family. When all this was happening, Orleanna was pondering over all the events and questioning her life in the Congo. Ruth May died on the same day that Lumumba was murdered, which she felt was not a simple coincidence.
One morning Nathan was giving a sermon on Bel and the Serpent, a story of Daniel and how he used ashes to expose thieves. In the middle of the sermon, he and Tata Ndu got into an argument about whether the village wants Nathan's teachings or their old gods and suggests to put it to a vote. Nathan argues back at Ndu stating that church and state are separate and that there would be no vote, but Tata Ndu was persistent and urged on with the vote, saying that Jesus would agree with majority rule and continued with the vote. The villagers voted 56-11 that they preferred their old gods to Nathan's teachings.
There is supposed to be a hunt in the village to provide food where all the men go, and the women wave palm leaves at a fire while they hunt and the children collect burned bugs. Leah, however, wants to go on the hunt too, which is unlike the Congo custom. The chiefs of the village do not want her to go, but Anatole tries to convince them otherwise and they decide to put it up to a vote. The village votes that Leah should be allowed to hunt due to her handiwork with her bow, and this outrages the chiefs. Nathan doesn't want Leah to go and forbids her, but she resents and when he tries to whip her, she runs into the forest to spend the night in the schoolhouse. The next morning Anatole finds a green mamba next to his cot, which he believes to be a sign of a curse.
Adah begins by explaining some Congolese words and ponders their meanings. She decides to go and observe the hunt and when Tata Ndu announces its beginning, she decides to join the children in collecting the bugs as Leah hunts and Ruth scavenges as well. Adah takes pleasure in watching the poetic chaos that happens when the fire is lit and the animals begin drawing to it like it was planned.
Leah killed her first game with Nelson's teachings and as she began to go after it, Tata Ndu's son Gbenye called her a thief and argued it was his arrow that killed it. Nelson came to her rescue and proved it was Leah, insulting Gbenye by calling him a woman. Leah felt good about the kill but mixed up about Nelson's words.
Rachel was disgusted with the hunt after it had occurred. She was terrified with the people for their inhumane doings and left for home early, vowing not to touch any of what was killed.
There was supposed to be a celebration after the hunt but instead people fought over meat and Leah was denied her kill. Anatole took his meat but went away from the family, and Leah feared he no longer desired to be associated with them. The whole feast had fallen to ruins right in front of the Price's eyes.
At dinner, Leah and Nathan argue, but the rest of the family is on Leah's side, arguing that she put the food on the table. This shows that all the girls are basically against Nathan. He says he won't punish Leah because she doesn't deserve God's wrath. Nelson finds an X on the coop where he sleeps and fears that he may be the next target of the curse and asks to sleep in the house. Nathan forbids it and says that any girls helping him would be punished. The girls ignore their father and spread ashes outside to try and catch the person who is putting the snakes near peoples homes (this refers to the story of Bel and the Serpent). Nelson stays at Anatole's for the night, where he finds it safest.
The next morning Nelson wakes the girls to check the coop. They find the snake in the coop with the chickens and eggs, and it strikes and leaves the coop. The girls and Nelson are struck numb at what they have just witnessed, and look at the ashes to find a footprint with six toes on it.
The girls and Nelson heard a scream and looked around to find Ruth May in a huddle on the ground. They thought she was just frightened and reassured her the snake was gone, but Nelson knew something was wrong and tore open her shirt. They saw the puncture wounds where a snake had bitten her and Nelson called for someone to get milk to soften the poison, but it was too late. Nelson had loved Ruth May, and the girls and he had watched her die.
Adah vividly describes Ruth May's death in a poetic form of speech, quoting Dickonson's, "Because I could not stop for death."
The girls went in to tell their parents of Ruth May's death and Rachel thought how she never imagined her life and future this way. None of the girls could bring themselves to wake their parents and felt if they didn't tell, maybe it would seem as if it didn't happen. As the story has developed, Rachel has become less vain and is now focused more on her family and the loss of her little sister.
The girls tell their parents about Ruth and their mother acts as if she already knew, walking around and calmly making a covering for Ruth's body out of netting, then bathing the child. Their father's main concern was that his daughter wasn't baptized first. Women of the village come and kneel around the offering table Nelson made for Ruth and sing songs of mourning. Orleanna gives all of the furniture of Ruth's to the women and the children, who hang around waiting to see if there's anything else for them. It starts to rain and Nathan takes this opportunity to "baptize" the children there.
Book Five: Exodus
After Orleanna gave away her belongings and buried Ruth May, she felt that she had rid herself of a huge burden. She decided that since she had cleared the house, she should walk and told the girls to follow her. She began walking away from the Congo, leaving everything, including Nathan, behind. She did not intend to leave her husband, but he chose not to follow.
The girls took what they could carry and left the village behind, not looking back. Mama Mwanza's daughters brought them fruit and they trudged through the forest. Along the way, many women passed them taking food to their husbands and would help the Price's in any way they could. The women traveled in terrible rainy conditions and tried to remain in good spirits in their quest to reach Bulungu. They all caught malaria before that though, Leah's case the worst. She began hallucinating and seeing things and prompted her sisters and mother to go on without her, but they didn't have to because they were rescued by a group of men who took them to Bulungu where they remained. While there, Leah was nursed back to health by Anatole, though she still suffers from severe hallucinations. Though she doesn't know exactly when her family leaves, she does know that Rachel left with Eeben Axelroot and that her mother and Adah left on a banana boat. Though Anatole promises to return her to them, Leah chooses to stay with him, as she has fallen in love. Anatole argued that he would take her to her mother, but she said she was happiest with him and he agreed, so the two courted despite the superficial ideas of their cultures.
Axelroot "rescued" Rachel from the Congo and she took his name. She was not in love with the man but decided that his stature as a higher figure could get her in with the women of a higher class, so she put up with him. She recalls her hope chest from Kilanga and asks him to get it for her but he does not, which she wasn't surprised about.
Adah and Orleanna get picked up by an army truck and are transported to Belgium and tested for sickness. Once they are cleared, they are shipped back to Georgia. Adah goes to Emory University and visits her mother's shack often, where her mother is thought crazy for trying to grow so many plants. In searching for proof that she is the daughter of a veteran, Adah finds the true story about what happened to her father in the war and how he abandoned his troop. She is astonished and realized that the cowardice, guilt, and disgrace never really left her father throughout the Congo. Adah questions he beliefs in God as well as why her mother rescued her over Leah when they escaped the Congo.
Leah makes a full recovery only to discover that her father is not doing well with his house being burned and being left alone with no one to cook for him. He lived in a small hut still trying to convert the people of the Congo. Leah and Anatole gained help from friends so they could stay together. They traveled to where Lumumba has followers, and Leah stays in the village to help in a clinic while Anatole works to rebuild the community. However, he was imprisoned by Mobutu's people and Leah began to worry, practicing African religions to pray rather than her old Christian ones.
Rachel loves life in South Africa, but hates her marriage to Axelroot. She finds him a dishonest man and cannot stand her marriage to him, so she decides to plan to move in on Daniel, a French Ambassador and get him to whisk her away from Axelroot.
On January 17 (the anniversary of Ruth May's death) Leah kills a snake in her honor. Anatole tries to comfort her but he is also stricken with the fact that Congo is no longer independent. The two open a school but have to be careful not to displease Mobutu in their teachings. They love their teachings and are happily married, though Leah longs to see her mother and sisters again. The Fowles visit them regularly, always bearing bad news about the Congo. The couple find out that Nathan has disappeared and there have been many murders, including her childhood friend Pascal. She mourns for the loss and thinks back often to Ruth May.
Adah befriends a neurologist in medical school who explains that her disease does not affect her mobility and that many of her habits are learned. At first she scoffs at him but he soon has her try crawling and other pediatric recovery, and she eventually loses her "slant" as she calls it. She is pleased that she is no longer lame, but is upset that she can no longer work with words as her mind once let her. She feels a sense of freedom from her handicap, and thinks often about her life when she is in the hospital. Leah and Anatole come to visit with their firstborn, Pascal and Adah is stuck watching him. They feel that the states are not their home and that they belong in the Congo. One night when Orleanna is visiting, Adah asks her why she chose to save her from the Congo over Leah. Adah finds comfort in finding out that the answer was never about worth, but about position and a mother's need to protect her youngest child.
Things are bad in the Congo since Mobutu took over. All places were renamed and America seems to be taking over the Congo for their own commercial use. Leah and Anatole live with their 3 sons as well as a friend, Aunt Elisabet and her daughter. Food is difficult to come by and life is hard politically, economically, and socially.
Rachel enjoys Daniel's company but finds that it's not good to be with a man who is willing to leave his wife for another woman and instead decides to go after Remy Fairley, who dies soon after their love affair, leaving her the Equatorial Hotel which is notorious for paying guests and keeping the help out of the way of the foreign travelers. Rachel is pleased with her life as the runner of the hotel, though she is frustrated with her family for not visiting. Her frustration comes out of the fact that she cannot show off her powers and success. She feels that the rest of the family have become failures and thrown away their lives and that she is the only one who has done something with hers.
Anatole is arrested again, this time for treason against Mobutu. Leah is lost without him and feels terrible that she cannot find him or do anything for him. She resided to take care of her sons by herself but curses herself for being white and simply wants her husband back.
The sisters reunite, leaving Leah's children in school and with Orleanna. They go on somewhat of a road trip and pick up Anatole along the way. Rachel is upset that they do not want to see her hotel, but Leah refuses, especially since Anatole would not be allowed in all of it. They talk of the Congo and how their father died because the villeage accused him of deaths of their people and chased him up a tree which they ultimately burned. The girls do not pity their father but rather feel he got what he deserved.
Orleanna is constantly feeling guilty for Ruth May's death, but is happier now that she is in the states. Adah visits often and tells her mother of Nathan's death, which she reacts to by planting flowers in her garden. Orleanna is upset not that he died, but that no one back home every questioned him or the death of her youngest daughter, and Adah finally is able to admit to her mother how much stress her father caused them all and that she hated him. She also somewhat regrets her decision to cure the handicap that made her the person she was.
Leah and her family are constantly on the move and end up in the Kimvulu District where they feel somewhat safe. They now have four sons and work with a man on a soybean plantation. Their ultimate goal is to end up in Angola where they feel they will finally be free, though Leah feels she will always be haunted by the color of her skin and her heritage. She is constantly worrying about her family and Anatole, though she is still the somewhat same courageous girl throughout the story.
Book Six: Song of the Three Children
Rachel continues on with the Equatorial and seems happy for the most part. She is still just as materialistic and shallow as at the beginning of the story, only now she is older and has tales to tell people. She contracted a disease from Axelroot preventing her from having kids, which she often regrets but doesn't think too much of, since she is happy with the life and friends she has. She wonders what life would be like in the states and has contemplated going back many times but hasn't because she feels like the image wouldn't be good. She thinks little of her family, especially her deceased father and believes she is a strong woman who made it through the struggles successfully and maintains a good life.
Leah and Anatole live happily in Angola, with their fast growing boys, one of which reminds Leah a great deal of Ruth May. Anatole tells Leah stories of the Congo, as if they were still there. Though Leah's father is long dead, she apologizes to him for leaving the faith, as she now is focused more on her own beliefs. She and Anatole plant gardens and show the passer-bys how to plant for themselves. They see the past as a dream and Leah realizes in looking at her boys that, "time erases whiteness altogether," ultimately accepting that her heritage does not define but her appearance.
Adah rejects the medical field as she grows to learn more about the desire for doctors to "cure" all handicaps and make perfect people. She finds it unnatural and that it would lead to overpopulation among other world problems. She leaves to practice her own medical ideas in research of viruses. She calls herself a witch doctor, what with all the knowledge of African medicine she has behind her. She and Orleanna get together once a month to enjoy the presence of the other. Though Adah has had many opportunities to marry, she rejected each one because she felt that they would not have accepted her if she were still a cripple.
Book Seven: The Eyes in the Trees
Ruth May's spirit is the teller of the last book. She describes that she is now a green mamba, a snake that watches over and is a part of all of Africa, both alive and dead. Shed describes the account at the beginning of the story of Orleanna at the river on a picnic with her girls and the okapi, but now Orleanna is aged and has no recall of Kilanga, only a forest. Ruth May insists that she is at peace and consistently prompts her mother that she is forgiven and needs to move on from her guilt and pain, ultimately telling her to walk forward into the light.
From beginning to end, all characters go through some sort of change whether mental or physical, temporary or permanent, etc. that affects who they are as people and how they live their lives. Though the story is one that surrounds guilt and sorrow, in the end it is ultimately forgiven and the journey that the Price's embarked on turned out not to be what they had expected, but a journey nonetheless. In their quest to save the people of the Congo, they encountered much larger tests that ultimately led to their liberation as well.
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