Psychological Critic "Bel and the Serpent"

Psychological Critic

Leah Price

One of the characters that had matured the most in “Bel and the Serpent” has been Leah. Before, in previous chapters she was a very conservative, timid, and sheltered girl who attempted to follow in the footsteps in her father, Nathan Price. Although now she finds, “It was hard to believe I’d ever wanted to be near to him myself. If I had a prayer left in me, it was that this red-faced man shaking with rage would never lay a hand on me again” (333). Tensions are rising in the Congo and Leah will not withstand any more abuse that she endures from her father and she refuses to follow in the footsteps of her father’s stubbornness. The characters are aging throughout this Congo experience and are becoming knowledgeable to everything that’s occurring around them. Leah begins to judge for herself and finally decides to support her own opinions. For instance, the main idea of this book was the hunt to feed the village, Leah’s skill with her bow and arrow played a main role. Many of the kikongan men didn’t accept the fact that Leah was going to help hunt with them. It wasn’t really apart of their culture, but that didn’t stop her from hunting anyway. In fact, she even killed an impala. Her decision making has altered a lot since before. In this one scene in the book she debates with herself what the right thing to do compared to the wrong revengeful side. Her feud with Gbenye was a prime example when Gbenye threw a bloody piece of the antelope toward Leah. In her mind she knew that the best thing to do would be to, “pick it up in both hands and give it to Mama Mwanza…but the sin of pride took hold of me with a fierce grip. I picked up the whole bleeding leg and threw it at Gbenye, hitting him square across the back as he gloated to his friends” (353). The most memorable instance where we can tell that Leah has changed dramatically is when she argues with father about morals. After father plainly insults Leah in front of her, Leah replies in a smart and sassy tone of voice by saying, “Is that your point of view, Father? How interesting that you think so” (356). Like Rachel we can see that Leah is becoming more like her sister in the way that they’re both beginning to rebel against their fathers wishes. Except when Leah rebels she does it in a sassy “talking back” sort of way where as Rachel sort of just wines and begs to leave the Congo. The factors that motivate Leah to act the way she’s behaving recently is due to because of her father and the kikongan culture how they’re not so accepting of women rights/freedoms.

Rachel Price

The first thing that comes to mind about Rachel is that she always is still trying to find a way to escape from the grasp the Congo possesses over her. She refers to Mr. Axelroot quite often still wondering if he’ll come back anytime soon for her and give her some American gifts. Other than that she begins to worry a lot about what’s happening in the Congo. Certain events that have caused only hate, is tearing the Price family apart. A big part of this book is about how Leah is really rebelling against Father. While Rachel notices this she begins to talk a lot about how she worries for the safety of Leah as well as the aftereffects it might have on the rest of the family if father decides to finally snap and go crazy. This shows that she’s different from before because previously she didn’t really care about what happened with the family she really cared about only herself and how she would cope with her situation. As vain as she was before she’s turning into a more thoughtful and older sibling looking out for her younger sisters. A big moment that she stresses in this book was how after the village hunted for all the animals, Rachel became a vegetarian. This opens up a whole new side to Rachel aiding to our opinion on how she’s become less vain and actually cares about animals now. Unlike her sisters who tortures and hunts for them. She even thought that becoming a vegetarian would mean that she might lose all her hair and she was willing to accept that loss if it meant that she wouldn’t have to see animals being killed. The final event of “Bel and the Serpent” was when Nelson was pleading for someone to help keep him safe from danger that might lurk when he’s in the chicken house sleeping. Leah on one hand couldn’t stand hearing Nelson beg for safety like that so she went outside to help him regardless of Fathers orders. She stated that, “This is wrong…I’m going to help him. Who has the guts to come with me?” (358). Normally, being the oldest Rachel would have the right intentions to lead her sisters to do the right thing, but instead Rachel was really the last to come with the Price sisters to help save Nelson. If everyone hadn’t left Rachel all alone she might not have come with them anyway. This is how Rachel differs from her sisters, she tries to help when she’s needed, but when push comes to shove Rachel isn’t usually the one to take the lead and control of the situation. Unlike Leah who is now taking charge of every opportunity she gets her hands on. Rachel is motivated by many people and events. First of all her whole life changing decision to become a vegetarian was motivated because of the desperate acts of the village. As for the person who motivates her the most to be a little more timid in helping others is Leah because Leah is taking control of the situation now instead of Rachel because she couldn’t do a great job in the first place.

Too much is enough

Track practices are beginning to seem very brutal now a days. During intervals we have our intense practices on Mondays and Wednesday. When I say intense I mean these types of practices really test your determination and train you both mentally and physically. You're running at a constant rate with hardly any rest. Testing both your patience and your ability to sustain your pace. Our coach was once our age and knows all the tricks we try to prevent us from getting better. The tricks and the trades of track aren't that simple now that he's our new coach. He knows we try to save our energy for the last few repetitions. He pushes us harder and harder each step we take, so we can hear his breathing and fear his footsteps. He pressures us by saying if I beat you to the finish we're going to run another one. He doesn't want us holding any bit of energy left for later because you can't be doing that during an 800 meter race. He believes how we practice during intervals is how we're going to look during our meet. He wants us to train in the same mindset every time we begin our intervals treat it as if it were an actual race. Our coach, at the height of our misery, enjoys repeating the phrase, "Dealing with adversity." We're not quite certain what that quote means, but we've inferred that it meant you have to deal with what you're given. That you can't expect to know what life's going to put you up against. Whatever challenged you're faced with you have to take it on headstrong. Life will always take you by surprise whether you want it to or not. It's got a bag full of them and you'll never know when you'll be faced with one, so you can't always be prepared for it, but instead learn to cope with your situation when the time comes. Every interval all I can expect is that I'm going to feel like I'm in the pits of hell. I start with the common symptoms, shortness of breathe, dryness of the mouth, and then it gets even greater to a point I begin to feel nauseated. All that's going through my mind is when was this workout going to be over. My brain was pulsing and all I that was left to motivate me was to push myself a little harder in practice so I could be ready for my meet and qualify for states. The pain I go through each of those two days of the week I can't stand to bare. It's making me a better runner of course, but I always question is the pain ever worth it? Our whole team has faced that time in their workout where quitting seems like the best option, but we refuse to do it. Just like being tempted to throw up when you feel like you've pushed yourself to the limit, but you force yourself to hold it in for just a couple more repetitions. There's no way to judge if we're going our very hardest and there's no way to see if we've pushed ourselves to the point of no return. All I know is that when I'm running I go as fast as my legs will take me. Dedication to the sport plays a big role in reaching your personal best. Our coach even mentions to us after practice about how we should eat right if we want to see maximum performance during our intervals and meets. Every visit I take to the snack bar is a test of my obedience to my coach. When I see my friends eating donuts and drinking soda it tempts me. My obsession to perfect myself and achieve my personal best lacking at the moment.

Winner

Everyday in the locker room I pass this paper posted on the board that talked about winning. It said that a winner was not the one with the most points, but the one who'd done more than that. He's a winner because he did all the little things which lead his team to success. A winner who fought for every inch they could take and every opportunity they seized it. This winner didn't fear anyone and looked each of his opponents in the eye to tell them that he was ready to compete and that he wasn't intimidated at all by their appearance. It mentioned that to be a winner it takes heart, dedication and the will to try again and again even if you don't succeed the first time. To persist and pursue their goal no matter what obstacle was in their way. A winner isn't cocky about their accomplishments, instead is humble and modest. After the competition is over and the game has seized they go over to their competitor and shake their hand firmly to let them know it was a good game regardless of their differences it was out of sportsmanship. Although just because their friendly with one another after the game is over doesn't mean they don't duke it out during their competition. They show their opponents no mercy and come with every bit of energy they have to offer. In every way possible they fight and die for a victory and give their best efforts to show the world what they're capable of.
This paper summed up my every effort to define what I'm trying to discover, which was my personal best. I desired to understand how to accomplish my very best. With all these factors that describe and illustrate this "winner" then maybe if I follow the same attributes.

Literacture Circle Reflection #2 Judges

The first topic that arose during our discussion about the book, Judges was that we noticed Leah doubts her father’s intentions to teach her God’s word. Leah was worried about her family and see’s that Nathan, “wasn’t able to protect Mother and Ruth May from getting sick. If it’s all up to him to decide our fate, shouldn’t protection be part of the bargain?” (243). From that we’ve assumed she was trying to become more independent and has opened her eyes to all the other possibilities of interpretations of God’s word like Anatole’s. Anatole has become a big part of Leah’s life since she’s moved to the Congo. Their relationship has furthered to the point where she now views him as a fatherly figure such that she would go to the length of even saying, “Anatole’s name anchored me to the earth, the water, the skin that held me in like a jar of water. I was a ghost in a jar. ‘I love you, Anatole,’” (311). Our group talked about why she might have said this. We inferred that it was because she didn’t really receive much family love from her father and longed for it her whole life. Since she’s found in a way a new “father,” Anatole she feels that she can accept his kindness and actions as a father’s compassion.
We also questioned why the village preferred Brother Fowles instead of Nathan Price as a preacher. What was the difference between the two and why was one more accepted than the other? We realized everything that Brother Fowles had to offer, which was clothing, medicine, food, and much more supplies. While on the other hand Nathan wasn’t able to support the village with all those things he tried to supply them with the Lord’s word instead. Of course that was his whole intention of coming to the Congo to spread his religion, but obviously Nathan couldn’t accept the fact the village wasn’t really open to the Lord unless they couldn’t find serenity with their idol gods. Brother Fowles realized this and found a way to adapt and add God along with the Bible into the kikongans beliefs. Something Nathan refused to do because he remained strictly on his beliefs and was too stubborn and refused to alter his methods of preaching.
Other than just the people in the story we also discussed the events that occurred such as the reference to ants and believe this served a biblical purpose. Such as the time when Adah and Leah were outside and they killed a bug and fed it to the lion ants, which was like the story in the bible where they killed Christians by putting them in the lions den to die. Another reference was when the swarm of ants all came to search to find water since there was a major drought. Like the story of the locus which served to mosses as a sign from God if the pharaoh didn’t let God’s people free from his slavery. There may also be a hidden metaphor relating both stories from the Bible and what has actually has occurred in the Price’s life.

History of the Congo

Mrs Watson assigned us the task of researching the events that occurred specifically from the time periods of 1955 - 1966 and then later discuss the more recent years of 2000 - 2007, so we can see the differences and how much Africa has grown since then.

There are many events that occur of which deals with the Congo. President Eisenhower ensured to the United States that everything was running smoothly as planned in Africa. When actually it was the total opposite. During this earlier time period both the US and Africa were debating whether or not to make the Africa turn into a communist Nation. Although the US would rather have Africa not become communist due to sarcastic remarks made by US officials such as, "No responsibility for Africa. Let them go communist if they feel like it" (Kingsolver 96). When in reality the US desires Africa to stay away from Communism because US is still acting as a "parasite" if you will. In a sense that they are feeding off of the goods and natural resources that the US finds very valuable since the resources there are of much abundance. During majority of the most of the years in 1900's Belgium had a major influence in Africa. They basically controlled all of that nation and was ruled by the Belgium army. An important idol to Africa was Tata Lumummba. This political man had much insight and knowledge about Africa's need and problems. This is why Africa supported him to gain a higher position to represent Africa and fight to gain benefits. An example of Tata Lumumba's spirit was determined to move forward on the road of nonviolence and peace. The soviet saw Tata Lumumba uprising to overtake the Belgium Army and accomplish an independence for the Congo and decided they would take this chance to overcome both forces and dominate the Congo for their own. In the
end Khrushchev didn't have that big of an impact to the Congo. His quest for domination was interrupted and instead Lumumba elected Prime Minister in May and created the Republic of Congo as they receive their independence from Africa in June 30,1960. As the Republic of Congo sets up their government they decided to make
things neutral so that everyone in the parliament will get along with each other.

During the recent years of the Republic of Congo's history there has been a great war between the African Nations. During the year 2001, the troops were lead by Laurent Kabila with one purpose, to achieve peace between the Nations and have an inter-Congolese dialogue. At the pace Kabila was going he was assassinated and after his death his purpose was avenged by his son. The war had ended during the month of April in 2004 and many people had suffered with a tragic number of 3.8 million people death count. As soon as this calm state began the African leaders had decided to reform their government by adding four vice presidents in July 17, 2003.

Work Cited

Pike, John. "Congo Civil War." GlobalSecurity.Org. 2006. 7 Mar. 2007 tp://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/congo.htm>.

New Critic PW 186-311

1) “Oh, a wife may revile such a man with every silent curse she knows. But she can’t throw stones. A stone would fly straight through him and strike the child made in his image, clipping out an eye or a tongue or an outstretched hand. It’s no use. There are no weapons for this fight. There are countless laws of man and of nature, and none of these is on your side. Your arms go weak in their sockets, your heart comes up empty. You understand that the thing you love more than this world grew from a devil’s seed. It was you who let him plant it” (191).

This passage describes the relationship between Orleanna Price and Nathan Price. As we can envision from the story, Orleanna doesn’t have an equal share of input in certain situations as Nathan, the man of the household which dominates. This thought relates to the metaphor of the wife throwing a stone at her husband in the passage. It says that even if she throws a stone it won’t hit him directly as planned it would instead hit a “child made in his image.” I’ll leave “child” for open interpretation for whoever fits you your own opinion. It could be the daughters or a native of the Congo. Since Nathan is a worker for God, Orleanna is possessed with a certain type of fear when arguing with Nathan. If she does chose to voice her opinion on a matter Nathan just replies with a strong verse or scripture from the bible supporting his belief. Assuming that Orleanna has a strong faith in Jesus Christ she chooses not to rebel against his teachings/sermons. From the line, “Oh, a wife may revile such a man with every silent curse she knows,” we can see that there’s really no way she can fight back and speak her voice and she holds all this unreleased anger her feelings inside herself curse at Nathan behind his back, fearing what he might do if he heard her. For instance, relating back to the first book, Genisis, where Methuselah kept on repeating a curse word that the Price family was forbidden to speak of at all. It was revealed that Orleanna had cursed when she couldn’t make Rachel’s cake properly. By viewing the line, “There are countless laws of man and of nature, and none of these is on your side,” which is implying that Orleanna feels that she’s fighting a one sided battle that she’s the only one verses the world. This lump-sided fight seems unbalanced regarding the fact no one will hear what she has to say because doesn’t have a strong enough voice. She’s up against Nathan, God’s scriptures, the Kikongans, money, a new surrounding and her children and sometimes she feels outweighed in the sense she can’t handle all these responsibilities all at one time. She’s getting herself to the point on giving up and just quitting and similar to what she does in the second book she lies in bed depressed and “sick” with Ruth May. The final sentences to this passage, “You understand that the thing you love more than this world grew from a devil’s seed. It was you who let him plant it,” makes me thing of Nathan as the devil. Sort of relating to the story we read before the Poisonwood Bible, The Gift. How this one man is obsessed with giving money to a point he puts his family after his addiction to donate. This is a similar scenario, Nathan only wants to spread the word of God and baptize people to convert them to the Christian faith. He never spends time with his family and hardly ever treats them with respect either. Sometimes Nathan even acts very racist which is very strange because he’s a priest. Based on the last few sentences the things that Orleanna loves most in this world are her daughters which grew from the devil’s (Nathan’s) seed. I’m only referring to Nathan as the devil because at this point in the story all that Nathan has done to the village to his family aren’t morally correct. Not in the sense that Christianity is a bad thing to spread, but when some people rather not accept Jesus as their savior then it shouldn’t be pressured unto them. Just because Nathan isn’t having much success as he planed to help convert people it doesn’t give him the authority to treat his family the way he does.


2) “’They understand that white people make very troublesome ghosts.’ I pictured myself a ghost: bones and teeth. Rachel a ghost with long white hair; Adah a silent, staring ghost. Ruth May a tree-climbing ghost, the squeeze of a small hand on your arm. My father was not a ghost; he was God with his back turned, hands clasped behind him and fierce eyes on the clouds. God had turned his back and was walking away,” (310).


To begin this passage by saying that “white people make very troublesome ghosts,” I find it very racial. What exactly from the evidence of the book does it show that white people make troublesome ghosts and in what way are they troublesome? A reoccurring event in the book is the significance of an owl and how it symbolizes a creature that reaps the souls of the dead from the villagers. It’s interesting to see how Leah, who is the speaker of this passage, views her sisters and her father. Rachel with long white hair would appear to me the observation a child of the Congo would say to describe her as, but you’d think that Leah, someone who would know her sister better would have something more constructive and descriptive to say. To describe Adah as a ghost I’d find it odd that Leah would say, “Adah a silent, staring ghost.” After all, Adah is her twin and you’d think the relationship they have in this book is more than just “Adah the silent, staring ghost.” From the impression we get of Adah we would say something more along the lines of a hidden/misunderstood genius. For her last sister Ruth May she thinks of her as a troublesome individual who enjoys climbing trees which is also a reoccurring metaphor in the book. Like the green mamba snake Ruth May also mentions many times in the book how, “If I die I will disappear and know where I’ll come back. I’ll be right up there in the tree, same color, same everything. I will look down on you. But you won’t see me” (273). Although, now we get the idea that Leah has a completely generalized image of her sisters. In a way, the way she talks in this passage contradicts the impression we get of her in this book. Earlier we learn that Leah is a very smart and intelligent girl since she acts very know-it-all to Rachel in the fight they had in the kitchen. We also know that she doesn’t mind teaching and being Anatole’s star pupil to help teach the children learn basic math. Leah, being the intelligent and desirable to please her father type of individual that we’ve come to know, I thought would never categorize her family in such a simple stereotypical manner. The last few sentences are quite interesting when she mentions her father and how he acts like God. Leah says, “…he was God with his back turned, hands clasped behind him and fierce eyes on the clouds. God had turned his back and was walking away.” It caught me off-guard the way Leah related God to turning his back and walking away. Nathan always taught his daughters God’s everywhere that he’ll always be there for them if they act responsible and appropriate. What would make God turn his back away from these religious preacher girls? Religion plays a big role in this book and everyone questions each others faith. Most of the kikongans and Anatole don’t believe in God because they have their own religions they prefer more than the Christian faith. This contrasts most of the Price daughters not, including Adah, but the rest have a pretty reliable trust in Jesus Christ. Based on the teachings they received from Nathan you’d think that God would always have the attention of Leah especially. What was really significant was the sentence, “My father was not a ghost; he was God with his back turned, hands clasped behind him and fierce eyes on the clouds.” What would make Leah say that he wasn’t a ghost? How did Leah get such a negative impression of God to make her say this statement? Does she think that God is ignoring her? Some evidences in the book come up when Leah discusses the topic of God to Anatole. She questions why he doesn’t believe in God? Anatole replied with the opinion that if God was truly who Nathan preaches him to be then God would be there during the Price’s most horrible times and prevent misfortune from happening. I’m assuming that’s what started her impression that God wasn’t everything she believed from her father. She’s questioning her fathers word compared to Anatole’s because Anatole seems to be a more accepting father figure to Leah than Nathan is. The final sentence says “God had turned his back and was walking away,” does that mean Leah is giving up her faith in God? I’m assuming for now that she doesn’t want to because she’s spent most of her life following in her father’s footsteps accepting Jesus Christ as her savior, but to say that he’s walking away from her must trigger some depressing emotions. Leah’s in a very confused state of mind because of all the events that are happening all at once. First Ruth May is terribly ill, Rachel is “engaged” to Axelroot, but Tata Ndu instead wanted to marry her and now the flesh eating ants who’ve surprisingly attacked the Kikongan village and all this after a mature talk to Anatole.

Too Close

During the winter season I partake in what I consider one of the toughest sports ever, track. Just like most sports you really have to train hard and learn perfect technique and strategy of running. This video relates to my essential question of "what is my personal best" because it teaches a key factor of your personal best. Some people may think that whoever is in first will win the race, but apparently after watching this video you never would have guessed the runner from Russia would have won. After watching this video I can tell that this Russian runner was very conservative during his race. He didn't want to lead the race because those runners tend to die out after the first 400 meters. The runner who won the race ran at his own pace and ran comfortably. My coach tells me everyday that it's good to run relaxed in a race. Earlier I said that track was one of the more difficult sports because the work we do in practice really questions how much "heart and desire to win" we have. Our coaches push my teammates and I, so hard to the point we feel like collapsing. Their vision is that by pushing us harder and harder to do better in practice and progress each day then we'll without a doubt be champions. I have faith in their methods of teaching due to their history as runners since one of my coaches currently holds some of the state records for Hawaii. Besides that they teach us that every single inch we cover in a race is important to our success. After every race I've had so far I've always felt that I could have given more to beat someone in a race. I could have ran just a little faster, I could have held my final kick a little longer. Just thoughts like that devastate me, but the one memory that I'll never get rid of was the time when I lost just by one second in a 4 by 400 relay. I was the last man aka anchor to run 400 meters. As soon as I grabbed hold of the baton I ran as fast as I could to beat this Roosevelt runner. It all came down to the last 100 meters and the runner with the most heart would win that last stretch. I ran as fast as my feet would let me and I pumped my arms as wide as my span would allow, but as we were neck to neck he began to break away with a lead. I tried as hard as I could to prevent him from winning, but apparently it wasn't good enough and he ended up winning the race. I felt like I let my team down and I immediately wanted another chance to prove myself. I know for a fact I could have beaten that runner, but when I ever I say the phrase "could have" I feel ashamed. "Could have, would have, should have," is all that people tell me every time I mention my sob story. In this year of 2007 I plan to never let this event reoccur again in my running career. All the tough practices I do, everything I think of during the race and outside the race all add up to just one event. Everything I've worked for up until that race lays on the line. This year more than ever I plan to train and reach my peak, my personal best as a runner, so I will be the one coming out with the lead and winning the race. If I just hold a positive state of mind throughout the race then without a doubt I'll be that best runner I always envisioned myself being.