Literature Circle 2 Reflection

In The Judges section of the book, a lot of things happened that helped us to learn more about the Prices and the people of the Congo. I think that the section where the girls are the narrators was called "The Things We Didn't Know" because the Price family realized that they didnt know as much as they thought they did, and how many things that they never knew about before. Also, it gives us the opprotunity to learn many things, especially how the women in the Price family change.

Rachel goes through a lot durring this part of the book. Tata Ndu, the chief, has been visiting the Price's house and giving them gifts almost everyday because he wants Rachel for a wife. So she doesn't have to marry Tata Ndu, she pretends to be engaged to marry Axelroot. He tells her the American's plot against Lamumba, but she is so oblivious she doesn't realize what is really going on. It also seems like she she has stopped caring about her appearance as much as she used to, and after her father pushed her out of plane, she has realized that she won't be going home anytime soon. To me, the biggest thing that happens to Rachel is when the ants come and the villagers push Rachel out of their boat. Rachel's mirror shatters which could be a metaphor for Rachel's life. Rachel's life is just like the broken, shattered mirror. She has nothing left, she doesn't know where to go or what to do. She basically has no life anymore. Her life is broken.

Leah changed a lot in this section of the book. Her belief and faith in her father is pretty much gone. She basically shifts her belief and faith she once had for her father to Anatole. Instead of always trying to help and impress her father, she tries to impress Anatole. When the ants swarm the village, Leah has no one to turn to except for Anatole who saves her. She feels that she has been betrayed by God,and says, "I felt the breath of God go cold on my skin" (310).

Adah has had her faiths in her family, herself, and America changing. She feels betrayed by the President, for planning to kill Lumumba, and her father or God, for not being there to help her when the ants come, she also feels betrayed by her own mother for not helping her, but instead helping Ruth May. She also questions her own worth, and weather she is even worth saving.

The ants in this section were also a metaphor for the African people. It showed that when they are pushed down for so long and with little resources, they will revolt and take everything in their path for freedom. It could also be a metafor for what could happen if Nathan continues pushing Christianity onto the people, then they will eventually get fed up and rise against him. Another meaning for this metaphor is the Independence movement, where Lamumba led the people to rise up against the Belgians.