Adah Price

   by Dillon Tryhorn

          Ruth May was a saint.  She was sent to the Congo because of her stubborn father and because of that, she is now dead.  Ruth May did have some crazy thoughts though, like wanting “to see Nelson naked”  (Kingsolver 153).  Ruth May should not have died because she was the youngest sister, the innocent one.  She never experienced much of life.  She wasn’t baptized!  In my opinion, the person to die was her sister, Adah.  Instead of Ruth May’s death, Adah should’ve died instead.

            Adah Price was impaired with Hemiplegia.  It sounds nasty.  Anyways, Hemiplegia is total paralysis of the arm, leg, and chest on the same side of the body.  In Eliasson’s article on Hemiplegia, the disability is can be caused by “cerebral malformation”, which can be caused before birth.  Poor Adah got her disability because her “perfect” sister Leah beat her up and stole the nutrients whilst in the womb.  Adah and hemiplegic mind learned how to read and write forwards and backwards.  Her sisters thought she was just plain weird, but little did they know in the beginning that Adah was a genius just like her sister.

            Adah was a quiet girl.  She didn’t want to get involved with public affairs.  She just liked to watch and observe, like most stalkers.  She was peculiar.  Her hemiplegia made her half paralyzed, and being paralyzed isn’t really something people look for in a friend.  So school wasn’t really very good for her.  In the article “Psychological Problems in Children with Hemiplegia,” it states that “the odds of having peer problems were significantly higher among those with moderate-low child self esteem and were higher among children with intellectual impairment compared to those with high self esteem and without intellectual impairment respectively.”  She became an antisocial genius, only talking when she absolutely had to. Adah was a shady character, the one who knows all but keeps her mouth shut.  Like witnesses the crime lord would “get rid of” to make sure his business runs smoothly.

            What if Adah would have died and lit the movement to exodus?  How would her family react?  Let’s say Adah Price is killed by the mamba snake.  If Adah Price died, her family would be greatly impacted, just like Ruth May’s death.  Ruth May would forget and move on, as she is young.  Leah would feel worse because they were twins and she was part of the reason Adah is disabled..  Adah was the “niwt” and she was Leah’s sister and friend.  Orleanna would still strike up the courage to leave.  Rachel would be sad, but she would move on.  But the worst part, Nathan wouldn’t care.  She was baptized.

            Orleanna knew one of her children was going to perish.  Since we kept Ruth May in the picture, Orleanna is going with the rest of her girls back to the good ol’ United States.  Orleanna has now developed a mental instability.  Rachel is just the naughty girl she is, running off with Axelroot and contracting some “female problems on account of an infection” (Kingsolver 514).  Orleanna returns to Georgia with Ruth May.  Orleanna is declared insane.  Ruth May gets sent to a foster home.  Happy ending, right?  Wrong!

Ruth May Price

     
by Gray Hansen
       I wonder how it felt for Ruth May to find out that her sole purpose in the life was to die and cause action.  Her death shocked Orleanna into action much like a hurricane surprises refugees who waited too long to evacuate.  By then, it’s too late to do anything except scramble to get the heck out of there.  But what would have happened had Ruth May not been killed?  When would Orleanna realize that she needed to leave Nathan before things got worse? 

        Before Ruth May died, Orleanna was in some kind of emotional stupor.  She felt like she could not do anything to get away from her tyrannical, washed-up husband.   In a Prezi, Burnt Halvorson states, "Orleanna represents the wives who act as bystanders to their husband's actions." “What did I [Orleanna] have? No money, that’s for sure. No influence, no friends I could call upon in this place, no way to overrule the powers that governed our lives.  This is not a new story: I was an inferior force” (Kingsolver 192).  I feel that Orleanna gave up on life for a little while.  Ruth May's death was so shocking that Orleanna's gears finally started moving.  I mean, it takes a spark to start a car.  Without a spark, the car stays at rest.  It would take another "spark" to get Orleanna's butt moving.  Nathan, of course, would be the instigator of this event.

         Nathan's unrelenting fury is clearly evident throughout the novel.  That fear-inciting, hand-raising,  bible-busting fury that Nathan uses to "make his point" is bad enough at the beginning of the novel, but it even escalates from crazy words to insane actions (I mean, if you would describe getting kids eaten by alligators crazy).  He behaves very irrationally.  Laura Fitch's blog says, "Nathan Price becomes intensely drunk on The Bible and his supposed good intentions in the Congo."I could honestly see Nathan hitting his wife or one of his daughters (or worse).  How traumatic the event would be, though, that would finally shock Orleanna into leaving.

         Tata Kuvundu could have been another reason to leave.  He wass drunk on his customs as well. Drunk people do crazy things; like putting snakes in people's houses.  Would he have killed someone someone in place of Ruth May or scared off the Price family?
         Had Ruth May lived, she would probably be useless. Her sole purpose in the the novel is to die and light a fire under Orleanna.  Had Ruth May lived, God knows how long it would have taken Orleanna to come to her senses!

Leah Price

 
   by Swathi Ganesh

         As I was reading The Poisonwood Bible, I thought, "Man, I should really make a blog about this book", so here I am writing this blog post. Okay, well not really, but I did wonder why Barbara Kingsolver did such a cruel thing as kill off the young, cute, and naive Ruth May *spoiler* (I warned you at the beginning). Then I realized that she did this because Ruth May was the character whose death would've least impacted the story.

          
         Now don't get me wrong. Ruth May's death is certainly an important event and probably even the climax of the story; many events precipitated afterward that truly pushed the story forward. According to psychologytoday.com, "Researchers suggest that open communication within the family is an essential determinant of how well family members are able to move through and beyond the profound grief experienced immediately after, and for an extended period after the death of a child." This "open communication" is something that is lacking between the members of the Price family, which suggests why Orleanna finally takes the initiative to leave Nathan to seek safety for herself and her children, but would this somewhat fortunate outcome of the story have changed if it had been Leah who had died instead?

         
         Leah is a young, but wise and accepting girl who is actually the reason that the Price family even survives in Kilanga. Her accepting nature allows her to adopt Kilangan customs and ways of life, which helps her gain the acceptance of the Kilangans. She uses their bow-and-arrow technique, which she eventually masters (like Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games), allowing her to catch food for the whole village. Her emotional bond with Anatole is also useful because he is able to give the Price family the latest news about what is going on, politically, in Congo and is also able to help them escape.  If Leah had died, the Kilangans would have probably rebelled against Nathan because of his imposing nature and possibly would have even tried to kick the Price family out of Congo. 

          
         Although Orleanna can be considered the "leader" in the part of the story where she and her girls are escaping Kilanga, Leah also plays a huge role in their journey to safety. She appeases them of their hunger by using the "Kilangan hunting techniques" she had learned to catch food for the family, but how is Leah able to deal with such difficulties successfully while her whole life is in chaos? According to the American Psychological Association, people who are resilient more easily adapt to life-changing situations and stressful conditions. Without her, I honestly don't believe the Price could have made it through their journey. 

          
         Leah's death (if it had happened) would've had a negative impact on the story, in contrast to the somewhat positive impact of Ruth May's death (yes death is a bad thing, but her death pushed the Price family to safety). Leah's kindness, wisdom, and resilience allowed for her own success as well as that of the whole family (or most of the family, I suppose, since Ruth May died). Although both girls played an important role in the story and had a significant impact its outcome, Leah was definitely the more influential of the two.