ipl-logo

Bel And The Serpent Short Story

1169 Words5 Pages

“Not all those who wander are lost”- J.R.R Tolkien. During the “Bel and the Serpent” portion of the novel, Ruth May is killed by a poisonous Cobra- a common death in the Congo. Out of all of the Price sisters, “It is Leah who takes it the hardest and shows the most obvious signs of emotional damage”. Ruth May was a symbol of freedom and innocence in the Price family. She died on the same day as President Lumumba. Readers are able to draw the connection between the two deaths as a symbol for the future of the Congo. After hearing news of the assassination on president Lumumba, under the suggestion of President Ike, Eisenhower- who thought that “Lumumba threatened the state of the world”- the united states finally decided to take action. Leah …show more content…

After having Malaria, and having Anatole take care of her, risking his life on accounts of “treason”, Leah once again confesses her love to Anatole. This time they decided to get engaged despite the endangerment that it put Anatole and those around them in. This shows that Leah still had a selfish nature that she needed to work out. She gets to reflect on this nature at a nunnery after Anatole goes to prison on treason charges. She once again has to be ripped away from her home in order to assess how to better herself. In this experience, she becomes very humble and proceeds to make any other decision concerning herself with caution, being sure to put others and their needs first. When he returned, Leah is much more appreciative of what she has and works more toward building and making good relationships with others. She feels that the only way to help reconstruction and independence in the Congo is to come at it from an angle of selflessness and not self righteousness. America may be thought of in the same way. America wanted the rich minerals that could be gathered from the soil in Africa, mainly the Congo. They tried to have relations with them in order to get these resources, and provide help and introduce democracy. Nonetheless, the United States caused more harm than good from these interactions and it took them having to take a step back to evaluate

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of The Poisonwood Bible By Barbara Kingsolver

    882 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ruth May said the quote “I was like a green mamba snake. Poison. I could be right next to you and you wouldn’t ever know it.” but in some sense you could also compare Leah to

    Read More

  • Big Stick Diplomacy Case Study

    1309 Words  | 6 Pages

    The United States saw it necessary to keep up with European powers in Asia, especially in the Manchurian region of China and at the same time avoid foreign intervention or investment in Latin American markets. Three different foreign policies, Big Stick Diplomacy, Dollar Diplomacy and Moral Diplomacy

    Read More

  • King Leopold Outbreak Research Paper

    1354 Words  | 6 Pages

    Instead of giving the people of Congo freedom, he took it away and made them work extremely hard, and giving them impossible quotas to meet. If they were not meet, he would cut off their family members hands, and their own to make them work harder, and as punishments. He would take the resources that they got, and used them to make him rich, and make the land flourish in terms of buildings, and making it more urbanized, but the Congo people were struggling to live everyday. As a result, thousands of Congo people were killed for the brutal work King Leopold made them do, and the population decreased significantly. Because of his actions King Leopold should be condemned as a criminal for his exploration and abuse to the Congo land and people.

    Read More

  • The Poisonwood Bible Character Analysis

    2036 Words  | 9 Pages

    In the beginning of the novel, Leah is a young Christian, American girl who looks up to her father, Nathan Price. Leah looks up to her father, describing him as “having a heart as large as his hands. And his wisdom is great” (42). This shows how much respect Leah has for her father. She puts her father on a high pedestal as he “understands everything” (66).

    Read More

  • The Price Girl

    580 Words  | 3 Pages

    Book one is called Genesis. The book tells the story of four Price girls getting ready for Kilanga and the things they carry. The writing technique that lets the reader see the same event through five different point views allows deeper insight. The plots of the four girls also help show how realistic the story is due to their immature and childish actions in the Congo. Ruth May is the youngest of Nathan and Orleanna.

    Read More

  • Suzy And Leah By Jane Yolen Summary

    540 Words  | 3 Pages

    She states in her diary, “She expects me to be grateful. But how can I be grateful? She treats me like a pet, a pet she does not really like or trust. She wants me to feel like an animal behind bars.” Leah becomes ill and is sent to the hospital.

    Read More

  • Nathan Price Character Analysis

    994 Words  | 4 Pages

    In many ways the Congo changes the young fourteen-year-old girl into a strong independent woman. There are many encounters in the novel where she starts to question her faith in God as well as in her father. For example, hearing stories about rubber plantation workers getting their hands chopped off because they were not able to get the desired about of rubber startles Leah and makes her question race relations. Race becomes a dominant issue at this point and her experiences in Kilanga have invalidated all she had been taught about race in America. At this point, Leah starts to go on her own and figure out whom she is.

    Read More

  • The Myth Of American Isolationism Analysis

    1047 Words  | 5 Pages

    He suggests that people mistake various American policies of unilateralism or neutralism as isolationism. Furthermore, he asserts that even then, America was not fully either of those. He takes the time to set the difference between neutrality/alignment, unilateralism/multilateralism, and isolationism/internationalism as well to finalise the difference between these often conflated dimensions of foreign

    Read More

  • The Berlin Wall Analysis

    1333 Words  | 6 Pages

    Many view the Western Powers as innocent in this conflict, however this article states otherwise. It is valuable because one person/country’s opinion should not count more than another’s. • Limitations – This source is opinionated, one-sided and biased against the Western Powers as it is written from the perspective of a person intentionally questioning the norm. It states radical opinions as facts. This secondary source is not reliable because it could be based on speculation and twisting of facts as there is a lack of evidence.

    Read More

  • Oil Embargo In The 1970's

    1443 Words  | 6 Pages

    These nations started to dislike the fact that even though they were exporting oil to the United States, they (Arab countries) weren’t receiving the same treatment. This caused a variety of conflicts for the United States. The main dispute being, the full halt of oil trading with the United

    Read More

  • Sacrifice In The Poisonwood Bible

    891 Words  | 4 Pages

    Leah’s tone of contempt towards her father is clear in the previous passage, and she also challenges the importance of the state of Ruth May’s soul, which shows a significant change in her earlier, more submissive and naïve, self. Her absolute belief in her father earlier in the novel is characterized when she says “His [Nathan’s] devotion to its [the garden’s] progress, like his

    Read More

  • Poisonwood Bible Analysis

    854 Words  | 4 Pages

    Her family, as she realizes the people they truly are, also change her thought process and mindset from when they lived back home in Georgia. As the Congo becomes their home, moral lessons were taught until the day the Price family departs from the Congo, but not all of them. Leah Price was introduced as a fourteen year old girl who is very intelligent and who idealizes her father, a godly man whose rules are stricter than most. The family is departing from Bethlehem, Georgia on a mission trip to Africa for a year with not much from home. Prior to the touchdown in the Congo, Kingsolver helps the reader understand Leah’s character by showing how she describes herself as the favorite and the smartest of the four girls.

    Read More

  • Ruth May's Reconciliations In Kilanga

    805 Words  | 4 Pages

    She grows old with the self-condemnation of staying with Nathan for as long as she did, for if she mustered up the courage to leave the Congo earlier, Ruth May would not have died. Ruth May’s plea for Orleanna to forgive herself, just as Ruth May has forgiven her, presents the possibility of repentance for anyone, no matter how great of consequence their mistakes are. Though she never passed the age of 6, Ruth May seems to have learned better than most the importance of finding strength from and learning from wrong-doings. Urging her mother to “Move on. Walk forward into the light”, Ruth may passes along her own moral reassessment to anyone whom will listen, telling the error in letting so-called sins weigh down ones self forever

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Irony Of America

    2191 Words  | 9 Pages

    The United States is in a tough position because it cannot isolate itself from the rest of the world and must engage with the world, albeit selectively, in order to promote U.S. interests. Also, the U.S. wants to force American-style democracy on the world, while at the same time, thinking the world can cooperate to solve the world’s problems. You

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible

    1001 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the “Poisonwood Bible”, by Barbara Kingsolver, there are particular elements of exile that drive Leah Price to finding her true self, each leading her further away from the previous exile status and closer to her true self. Such instances of exile are seen as a placeholder for the next instance in which she descends into her true self and departs from her “home”. For example, when she leaves America with her family, she knows little-to-nothing about what the Congo has-in-store for her. As she loses her connection with America, she begins to rely more on Nathan Price, her father, strengthening the bond that they already had, which only leads to the imminent exile that she must face next. Her father’s mischievous behavior creates numerous circumstances that test

    Read More

More about Bel And The Serpent Short Story

Open Document