one chance to touch a star

Post 22 :: Literature Circle on "The Judges" :: Of Mosquitoes and Men


I


Overall, this chapter was far more interesting to me than the others were. Perhaps it's because we've gotten farther -- past the introductions and set-up. Past the point at which we remember that all we're doing is reading an assigned book. Past the point at which we remember to turn back. Right?

This chapter, for me, represented the "beginning of the end," in a way. In this chapter, we can see that the girls are beginning more and more to question what they want and what they're willing to do to get it. Leah begins to peel away from the family, attaching herself to the Kikongo culture and Anatole. Adah is left behind by her mother on the night of the nsongonya, when Orleanna chooses to save Ruth May instead. Rachel resorts to one engagement to free herself from another, leading her to a new way of thinking and adding new possibilities to the pile. Ruth May is safe, for the moment, thanks to the discovery of 61 quinine pills glued to the wall behind the bed.

I can't really "extrapolate" anything, because I've already read past the end of Judges, Bel and the Serpent, and into Exodus. But here, in this post, I'll concentrate on being a psychological analyst. How is this working?

When I think about the events that occur within Judges, my first thought is of the saying that tells us the true natures of humans are revealed under intense strain, physical or mental; however, is this true? Does it bring out who we are? Or does it warp our personalities into something completely different? When we are forced to choose, does it reflect what is at the core of our being? Or does it reflect circumstance? The thoughts at the very surface of the pond? I think to be an efficient analyst, one needs to understand the workings of the human mind. Which I am too young to understand. Or is that simply a stereotype that should be discarded?

Back to Judges, I think the most interesting point of the chapter, psychologically speaking, was the part in which Orleanna chose to carry away Ruth May and not Adah. What was she thinking? Forced to choose between her two daughters, allowed only two arms and legs with which to carry out her decision? I could make several guesses, but I'm sure you really can't put a label on something that complex.

1. Orleanna took Ruth May because she was closer. This would be a very simplistic type of answer, but really, if you were in a life-or-death situation, and you could save one person, what would you do? If you weren't sure you could save that one person? Wouldn't you choose the one you knew you could save? Who you could reach with the least amount of risk and loss of time?

2. Orleanna simply didn't see Adah. Is this possible? Sometimes, in extreme panic, some people lose sight of things around them. One thing becomes the most important thing in the universe at that moment: Staying alive.

3. Ruth May was more dear to her. I think that anything having to do with the level of affection Orleanna had for each child is the least likely. Although it may have something to do with her choice on the subconscious level, I doubt a mother who took in and cared for a child all those years could leave one behind simply because she liked her less. Plus, in that kind of situation, who can think through which child was the "better" one? Adah's disability could have factored in, though, I must admit. If Orleanna's priority was escaping to safety, Adah could have slowed them down, to speak bluntly.


II


In English class, we were given the opportunity to see a film called "The Mosquito Coast." It closely paralleled the events in the book we are reading now (PB), so it was... interesting to see. Human emotion is so much more clear when you can see it. Of course, that could easily be argued. Anyway, the plot was nearly the same, where a family gets dragged down to some underdeveloped land, without electricity and everything they are used to on American soil. By their father. There is a difference between the two fathers, though: One is a preacher, and the other is an inventor. This springs some other differences, involving their moral systems and their goals.

One similarity between them, though, was that they both wanted the citizens of the "uncivilized" villages to change their beliefs or to what they paid attention. The inventor wanted to be idolized for his creation of a machine that could create ice without electricity. He wanted the people to sit and be in awe of his creation. (I think that's quite egotistical, for the record.) Father Price wanted people to adore God. "Tata Jesus is bangala!" (276) Neither of the two realize that what they have to offer is something that these people have lived and survived without for many, many years. Why would they change simply to idolize something brought by white men?

"Even in their aims, we see striking resemblances. Yet, in their downfalls, we see the same resemblances. And as the reader, as the viewer, we feel the same sort of resentment that boiled within their families. We see and we empathize with those hurt by a false crusade to save those who were not already lost."
-- Elise

Springing from one subject to another, the two mothers are quite similar, I think. Although, in the Poisonwood Bible, **spoiler for Bel and the Serpent** Orleanna does decide to leave Nathan behind after Ruth May's death. **end spoiler** Both women seem like they were such strong women, reduced to the stereotypical wife, expected to follow and clean up the children, if nothing else. They cannot leave their husbands, out of some sort of insecurity, or perhaps simply because the thought had never occurred to them. Personally, although I can see how it would be difficult to be strong, and that I, because I have never experienced anything of their lives, cannot judge them, I dislike their weakness. Of course, you say. I think as mothers, they should have realized the suffering of their children and done what could have saved them. From the instant the beginnings of realization began to dawn -- that their father was not truly looking out for their best interests -- something should have changed. These women seemed so powerless; was it really like that? Were they powerless? Why couldn't they stand up for themselves? In a way, I can understand, but in a way, because I have been influenced by strong-minded women in television and books who may or may not have been real and plausible as characters, I cannot.