Lit Circle post 4 or so

In class, we talked about the chapter titled, "Bel and the Serpent". To summarize this chapter, Leah hates Nathan and Ruth May is bitten by a green mamba snake and dies.

At the beginning of the chapter, for the first time, the political drama unfolding in the Congo has been brought to the foreground, and is described with Orleanna's usual sense of inconcievable guilt. Orleanna's narrative also tells us another reason why she is guilty: because her inabillity, or her utter unwillingness to change or know what has been going on. In this sense, the political struggle the Congo faces parallels her personal one raging within her family and is equally as tragic. The death of Ruth May, the death of Independence.

Ruth May's death was quite expected. Taking into consideration Nathan's utter lack of concern for his family's well-being, and Orleanna's inabillity or unwillingness to act bravely and responsibly brings her worse fears into reality. The fact that the adults could not make a responsible decision about Nelson is what spurred the children to action, resulting in a childish mistake, and Tata Kuvudundu's obvious rage against the Prices.

Her death also turns Nathan's charachter into a far more depressing and tragic one. Leah finds his reaction to her unbaptized state so repulsive, and I do too. But with the utterance of the words "it can't be" sums up one of two things: Nathan's inabillity to show his emotions, or the fact that he disallowed himself to show emotion long ago.