"The Beasts of England"

This week I worked with a small group; studying Science Fiction. Our group is reading and writing science fiction for the next month and this week we read the book Animal Farm by George Orwell
Animal Farm takes place on a small farm in the English countryside where the farm animals plot a rebellion against the farmers and all the humans on the the farm. In the book the animals are cunning and passionate with opinions and ideas where in reality their main purpose is working and being eaten by humans.
The symbolism in the book is very strong and the whole rebellion reminds me very much of the Russian Communist revolution. Many of the characters in the book have strong connections with people and forces at that time as well as the themes and places. The concept of Animalism that the animals are feuling their rebellion with is very much like communism where the animals and anything they use are not owned. The animals all will have a better life also they are created equal and everyone owns the farm that they live on.
Characters:
Mr.Jones ~ Mr.Jones was the owner of the farm before the rebellion. He is like the last Czar of Russia, Nicholas II. Mr. Jones is very irresponsible to the animals and has let them go hungry in the past; the Czar was a poor leader at best and often irresponsible.
Old Major ~ Old major was a lot like Karl Marx because he founded animalism and Marx founded communism, they both believed in the idea of working class people/animals taking over the government/human authority and they both died before the revolution started.
Snowball ~ Snowball is the young smart idealist who gives great speeches and wants to make life better for all animals he is like Leon Trotsky who was also an educated passionate man and wanted better life for all Russians. They are both big followers of Old Major/Marx and were chased away by Stalin's Secret Police/Napoleon's Guard Dogs.
Napoleon ~ Napoleon is the Stalin of Animal Farm he was uneducated and not a good speaker like Snowball/Trotsky. They both were brutish cruel selfidevious and corrupt. They both were very ambitious for power killed opponents and used the secret police or KGB/Napoleon's guard dogs to threaten and chase away others.

Poisonwood Bible - Barbra Kingsolver
I want to focus on one of the key elements in the poison wood bible: Religion

The Price girls live in a small perfect little world. The family is god fearing and humble, they pray, go to church and school like every other family in Georgia in the 1950's. In the Congo things are much different. One aspect is religion, the natives walk aroung naked and don't go to church they are like animals. THe family is brought to terms when They meet the doctor from the village he is American big and muscular. He is confident and jolly. He swears and talks back to the Reverend, (the price husband). This section told through the eyes of Ruth May, the youngest, gets ofter carried away and fixates on particular details like a five year old would. The doctor comes to make her a cast for her broken are when she falls out of a tree. Ruth may is shocked when he uses the lords name in vain, says hell and makes fun of god. He tells Ruth May and her dad in the doctors office, about a man called Tata Lumumba a spirtitual leader who is very popular among the Colongese people. He doubts that the Reverend will get very far with his missionary work and jokes that This new leader will have more followers than Jesus himself. Ruth May has never heard this king of talk and is very outraged that someone could talk this way about the religion that she has been taught and relied on for all of her life. Lifw is very different in the Congo and you have to very open minded to get through it.

Adah Eyes

For this entry I wanted to focus on one of the less prominent characters in the book, The Poison wood bible. Her name is Adah Price daughter of the Evangelical baptist. Adah was born a cripple of sorts, in the womb her twin sister, Leah took the most of the nourishment while Adah 's brain weakened and starved which resulted in her hemiplegia. She is trapped inside a body that is slow and crippled on the right side, she can't speak very well, shouts and jumbled sounds are all that are heard and her vision is distorted. Here is a quote from the book describing what Adah sees: "Through Adah eyes the world is a boggle with colors and shapes competing for a half- brain attention." Adah is smart quirky and inquisitive she notices little details about people and never stops reading and thinking. The Price family came to The Congo all of the daughters envisioning different things. Ruth may who is four expected primitive cannibals. Rachel, the oldest expecting poverty and bashfulness. Leah, expected to meet people with families and houses that were proud and happy. Adah didn't expect anything, she stuck to her books and drawing and writing filling notebooks by the weeks.
When the family lived in the Congo for a while, they came to know the people and familiarize themselves with their surroundings. They began to gossip and talk with the people but they all passed their judgments on the place, all but Adah she doesn't speak. Adah's consciousness it fully functioning and she is a very individual and unique person. The frustration of having all of Adah's ideas and thoughts and and inquisitive mind while trapped in a slow bumbling dysfunctional body must be over whelming. Adah is forced to write down what she wants to say when she wants to, so she keeps many of her thoughts and ideas to herself. Adah describes, in the book what the advantages of silence are: people assume she is feeble minded or deaf and make a show of their own limitations. She is a prisoner to a overloaded mind full of feelings, thoughts and ideas that are just trying to find a way out. Many people have trouble expressing their thoughts and opinions in words, and outloud but they are lucky because people like Adah don't have any words at all.

The Congo

This week I have just started reading a book set in Congo, Africa in the 1950's. It is told by the wife and four daughters of a missionary, evangelical baptist from Georgia who relocates his family of sweet country gals to a remote village in the Congo, Africa. The daughters Ruth May, Leah, Adah and Rachel are frightened, amused and stunned by the villager's customs and poked and prodded by the children who come running to beg when the see their pale faces. The women go topless animals run wild and the land and buildings are shacks with overgrown plants the size of their heads. A few of my questions that I try to answer while reading are: Does Orleanna Price (mother of the girls) stand with her husband about the move to the Congo or against him and will she speak up? The Price girls have lived and grown up in segregated Georgia in the 1940s-1950s how will they cope with this new environment and will they grow up to be much different then the would have is they stayed in Georgia? And : How will they grow and change because, they need to wake up early to water the garden and pump the water and work both physically and mentally to keep in shape in this exotic land. Last: What part will the the rest of the family ( not dad ) play in converting the natives to their religion? I picked this book because, for one, I love historical fiction and I also wanted to challenge myself with this book because i have been reading some slow paced realistic fiction lately and I wanted to mix things up ;-). Until next week, Pia
Ps. I forgot to mention the tittle and author of the book: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbra Kingsolver