Literature Circle 3 Reflection

In our Literature Circle discussion of the Chapter Bel and the Serpent in the Poisonwood Bible, there were many significant points that were brought up that relate and are significant even though this section of the book isnʻt that long.
This section, like all of the other sections, starts with Orleanna's chapter. However, in this section Orleanna's part was different from the other sections because she usually would talk about how guilty she felt about Ruth May's death. In her section in Bel and the Serpent, she starts by going in detail how the political events unraveled leading to the "fall of the Congo", and Patrice Lamumba's death. This opening by Orleanna relates to her earlier openings because it shows that she not only feels guilty about Ruth May's death, but she also feels guilty that she simply stood back in her own security blanket as the Congo was dying too.
The title, Bel and the Serpent, also played a key role in this section. Not only the biblical story related to the book's section, but also the roles of Bel and the "Serpent" were represented in this section. The story of Bel and the Serpent is a story that tells of Daniel, who travels to a town where the people worship a false idol statue, Bel. They give him food and goods and Daniel wants to prove to all those people that Bel is not a real God. So he puts ashes at the base of the statue and proves, with the footprints that were there the next morning, that the priests are taking the food and pretending that Bel is eating it. By using the same idea with the ashes, the Price girls know that Tata Kuvundundu planted the green mamba snake in the shed because of the six toed footprint that was left in the ashes. In this section, Bel could be represented by Nathan Price or Tata Kuvundundu because they both want to be worshipped by the people, but what they are preaching is not necessarily real. Also, they scare the villagers whether it be with curses or prophecies. The serpent could also be represented by Tata Kuvundundu because, just like the priests in the story, he is caught in the act of trying to show the villagers that their idol God does exist when he plants the green mamba snake.
Another thing that we talked about was how the Price girls reacted to Ruth May's death. I think that the most significant reaction to the death was Adah's reaction because Adah changes her view on Ruth May the most. Adah turned the thought of Ruth Mayʻs death into a poetic kind of palindrome in her section. After Ruth May's death, it seems like Adah feels closer to her than when she was alive. I think that Adah is closer with Ruth May because she feels that they are both the same now now. They are both the eyes watching everyone. Now Ruth May is the eyes up in the trees, watching over everyone just like a green mamba snake.
One more important thing that we talked about is the difference between Muntu and Bantu. Both of these Kikongo words have two different meanings. Literally, Bantu means people or a group and Muntu means a singular person, dead, living, or unborn. Metaphorically, Bantu is the outer mask of a person, which is just a shell of what they really are, or their appearance. Muntu represents the inside of a person, their soul, or the eyes that are looking out of the Bantu.