Mosquito Coast

In the movie Mosquito Coast, an American Inventor/Father takes a ship from America to a jungle somewhere in the region of Mosquito in South America. He brings his wife and four sons with him. It is not a vacation though, its a permanent residence he is trying to set up. He claims that America has grown corrupt and greedy that pretty soon a nuclear war will happen soon to wipe the U.S.A off the map. His family goes through many hardships during their stay, but he alone remains ignorant of whats happening to his family, pursing his dream with sacrifice to his family's well being. In comparison to the Poisonwood Bible, a book by Barbara Kingsolver, this movie is quite similar in telling a story of a plight of a family and the ignorance of a father trying to forge a new life in a foreign place that has no need of their alien customs and thoughts. The movie is also, in a way, different too though. It is different, in a big way, because of the reasons each of the Fathers have for going to a new exotic, in hospitable (for their families) place to live for a while. The Father in the movie Mosquito Coast wanted to get himself and his family away from the corruption of the U.S. and thought he would help his family by doing this. He was selfish in this thought because he didn't care what his boys or his wife thought about his plan as he pursued his own dream only for himself. Nathan Price from the Poisonwood Bible goes to the Congo because he believes he can enlighten and civilize the natives which would help him cope with his past sin (which isn't really a sin to the rest of us) of being the only person to survive from his platoon in WWII by accident. Also, he doesn't even care, from the start, about whether this experience will help his family or not. In a way though, these two fathers are similar too because of the way they don't care what the family's opinion is on their plan.

The Love and the Loveless

In the book Poisonwood Bible, Leah, Adah, Ruth May, and Rachael are all very different to each other. Also, through the course of time in the Congo, they each start to develop their own sense and understanding of the situation around them and who they are. In The Judges, we see a drastic change in these four characters. I believe that this chapter is the turning point of the book, where perceptions are changed and the past is left behind. The four Price girls from Bethlehem, Georgia have begun down a new road, each with its own unique destination.

Leah
Here's a quote from the book that sums up a lot of what I wanted to say about Leah's changing understanding of things: "I decided right then to stop pretending I knew more than I did. I would be myself, Leah Price, eager to learn all there is to know. Watching my father, I've seen how you can't learn anything when you're trying to look like the smartest person in the room." (229). After realizing her father's ignorance to everything around him, the environment, the language, his own family, and the surrounding community, she begins to move away from her father. As she starts to move away, she questions all of what she used to see and believe in her father, coming up with conclusions based on her own observations and not just blind obedience. It is almost as if she starts learning anew, looking at information given to her from a different view point. Like a new, fresh sheet of paper, waiting for a pencil to write upon its surface. Leah also takes note of what's happening outside of their little village in the Congo around them and starts sinking her teeth into information about the independence. She becomes interested and concerned about what is happening in the Congo.
Also, she begins to see an interest in Anatole. And at the end of The Judges, she says "I love you, Anatole." (311), showing how much she has changed.

Adah
Through out this section of the Poisonwood Bible, Adah, for the most part, stays the same in her perspective of things and her curiosity. It is just at the end of The Judges when she says: "That night marks my life's dark center, the moment when groing up ended and the long downward slope toward death began. The wonder to me now is that I thought myself worth saving." (306). This quote come from when Adah's own mother leaves Adah behind for the sake of Ruth May, who at the time was perfectly capable of running and walking on her own at a fast pace. Adah's once innocent view of the world around her and how everyone viewed her is
changed. She comes to the conclusion that people around her, even those closest to her, will look down upon her just because she is mute and crooked. And even though she might be a genius, nobody will really respect her because she can't talk and she walks funny. In a way, this fact depresses her a little bit. I wonder how this sudden change at the end of The Judges will affect Adah's narration of the story as we read on ward.

Questions from The Revelations

Here's a few questions from my book that I forgot to put down for a while now.

What is the reason for the name of The Revelations for this section of the book?

How can Nathan Price not care about his children's safety of staying in the Congo?

Does Leah still hold her father's view of the Africans being savages to be true? Or has she changed her opinion?

What was the importance of Adah's last chapter where she describes Methuselah's death and says at the end: "Only feathers. without the ball of Hope inside. Feathers at last at last and no words at all" (186).

The Things We Carry

I can feel your eyes, a sensation that leaves the fine hairs on the back of my neck bristle and my skin like that of a goose, as I stroll through the floral of this changed atmosphere. I walk alone, the new colors and clothes of fashion surround my plain white dress, the white in this new world of color. Laughter, with its once contagious quality, is all around me, yet the sound of it breaks upon my ears like the waves upon an unbroken cliff; failing to cause the remembrance of happier times to take the expression of my face in its own grasp. You blame me, you watch me, you placed this melancholy veil over me. Or was it I who did that? The sky opens the heavens to my eyes, the sun's warm embrace captures wrinkles of this weary face, yet my heart is heavy with the luggage I brought with me from Africa. Luggage that I could not toss into the sea, that I could forget about as I am welcomed into this tropical paradise.
I could see my children take to this new place, grow and learn and turn into fine young women. Where ever I look, I see other girls, privileged enough to get an education in such a fine example of a school. But they have not shared the pain my daughters have. They have not seen Africa, they were not there with my daughters. I pity them, but yet envy them for their blissful ignorance. Who are they to say they are educated? They talk about last night's homework, the upcoming dance, and complain about school work. They worry about their hair, clothes, make-up, and getting to their classes, passing by me, not noticing, not caring. I pass under shade of palm trees and native floral trees, the sun splashing across my face in random intervals. It could have been different you say, I could have been a different mother. But that is for another time, another place, for it has been done, I cannot change things now. The easy trade winds blow my hair around me in a frantic dance as I walk on, walk on.

This is an experimental Paragraph written by me through the perspective of Orleanna Price. What I am trying to do is see my school through her eyes as if she visited my school and walked around for a while. Hopefully it turned out sounding ok.

Of Anti-communism and Hula Hoops

In Posionwood Bible, The Price Family leaves behind the Americas, the land of democracy and freedom, to go to an undeveloped, "uncivilized", and poor part of Africa on a mission. We hear of some complaints from the Price sisters (especially Rachel) of leaving their home in America. I was kind of interested in what the Price sisters and the Price family was leaving behind in the states. What kind of styles, music, new inventions, and culture were they leaving behind for a year to go to a place stuck 40 years behind the developed countries. Well here's some interesting things I have found out.

Of the style many of the people wore in America back then in the 1950's, it was conservative. It was after World War Two and communism was in the cross-hairs of America. There was a feeling of anti-communism that ran through out most of the American society and religion (I guess Christianity) was seen as some way of expressing anti-communism. This is when they added the words "under God" to the pledge of Allegiance. Men wore grey flannel suits and women wore dresses with pinched in waists and high heels. Frence Fashion designers like Dior and Chanel were popular. Also, cars were the new hot thing to show how cool you were.

Of the music, the fifties were the beginnings of Rock and Roll with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and some others. Along with the beginnings of Rock and Roll, there were other popular artists like Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, and Dinah Shore.

In the fifties, some more important happenings was the start of the Civil Rights movement with Rosa Parks and the Bus Boycott. There was the Korean war, 1950 - 1953, that America was getting over. And Disneyland opened in 1955.

Here's a short timeline of other interesting inventions and other thing in the fifties:

1950: First modern credit card introduced, first organ transplant, First "Peanuts" Cartoon Strip.

1951: Color TV Introduced, Super glue invented, Charles Ginsburg invented the first videotape recorder.

1952: Car Seat Belts Introduced, Polio Vaccine Created, Mr. Potato Head patented, Sony, a brand new Japanese company, introduces the first pocket-sized transistor radio.

1953: DNA Discovered, Joseph Stalin Dies, Dow Chemical creates Saran Wrap, TV color broadcasting began

1594: The first nonstick pan produced, First Atomic Submarine Launched, Report Says Cigarettes Cause Cancer

1955: McDonald's Corporation Founded, Warsaw Pact Signed, Optic fiber invented, The first home microwave ovens are manufactured by Tappan

1956: The first computer hard disk used, Los Alamos Laboratory discovers the neutrino, an atomic particle with no electric charge, Suez Crisis, T.V. Remote Control Invented, Velcro Introduced

1957: Dr. Seuss Publishes The Cat in the Hat, Soviet Satellite Sputnik Launches Space Age, Eveready produces "AA" size alkaline batteries

1958: Chinese Leader Mao Zedong Launches the "Great Leap Forward", Hula Hoops Become Popular, Lego Toy Bricks First Introduced, NASA Founded

1959: Castro becomes Dictator of Cuba, The Sound of Music Opens on Broadway, U.S. Quiz Shows Found to be Fixed

Here are the links to the sites I used to get this Information:
http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade50.html

http://history1900s.about.com/library/time/bltime1950.htm

http://www.fiftiesweb.com/pop/inventions.htm

Lost Communication

Its, Dark
I step into the night life
like you see on t.v.
Dance club
no, wait, picture it smaller
and teenagers
with dress restrictions
school gym
there...

I strain through the strobes
harsh rainbows
a splash of color here
there
in my eye...

The bass
a pounding "boof"
its the vibrations you feel
through the air
the floor
after all we are mostly water

Most of them are receptive
some like kelp in the sea
others a fluidity of motion that
flows ever so beautifully with the beat
and some
who shouldn't be there
though I shouldn't talk
sitting down

Its the beat that moves them
its the words that give contrast
the tunes that add color
yet...
my body is unreceptive
unused to, not knowing
how do I move?
Like this?
yikes
never doing that again

I tried
I wish I knew how
I love the beats
though the word choices could be better
I can feel it
my heart wants to
but sometimes imagination only goes so far
and stops at the dance floor for me
so I exit, get some water,
and listen to my ipod

Out of Blood and War

In the Poisonwood Bible, written by Barbara Kingsolver, we are told of the story of the Price Family, who has unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your view of things, been planted in the middle Africa, in the Congo, on a mission as a missionary family. The history of the part of Africa they were put to live in is one that is not so pretty, as of all of Africa's history when the Europeans came to colonize. In our present time, the part of the Congo the Price Family stayed is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire). The Kwilu River is about 4 degrees south latitude and 18 degrees east longitude and flows southeast ward. Of the little city, Kiwilanga, they stayed in in the book of Genisis, I am not sure where it lays. The city of Leopoldville, the city at which the Price Family first landed at in Africa, is now present day Kinshasa, 4 degrees 18' south latitude and 15 degrees 18' east longitude. Now that we have our frame of reference, place wise, lets continue on to the bloody history of this region.

In 1482, the first Portuguese came to the "Congo" as it was called back then. They were the first Europeans to visit the Congo. A few years later, King João II of Portugal sent the first missionaries into the Congo in the hopes of converting the Africans there to Catholicism. They, like the rest of the European Powers back then, also set up the slave trade in this region under the control of the Kingdom of Kongo, which controlled modern day north Angola and the western parts of the Congo. The Portuguese established ties with the Kingdom of Kongo which eventually was led to its own ruin through civil wars.

From 1870 to 1908, exploration, mainly by Sir Henry Morton Stanley who was employed by The King Leopold II of Belgium, and colonization of the Congo began. King Leopold wanted to create his own colony in the Congo and in 1885, the Congo was acquired formally at the Conference of Berlin. He got his land through the promises of free trade, humanitarian objectives, and philanthropic activities. He called his new land the Congo Free State. Within his new colony, he gave off the image of being the humanitarian, building new roads, railroads, schools, missions, etc..., but in reality, the Congo Free State was a nightmare. He forced the Congolese people into working rubber tree plantations and harvesting ivory. His exploitation of the Africans was mainly caused by his lust to squeeze as much capital his new colony could produce. It led to the enslavement and death of five to ten million native people. His atrocities went unheeded until 1905 when finally the world spoke up against the activities of the Congo Free State.

From 1908 to 1960, the Belgium Government took over the job of governing the Congo, which was then called the Belgium Congo. They continued with economic reforms of the area like the building of railways, ports, roads, mines, plantations, industrial areas, etc..., but there was only slight improvement for the welfare of the Congolese people though, and the government allowed many native people to still be enslaved. The Congolese people still didn't have any political power or have any say in the government they were under. Three big forces controlled the administration of the Congo, and they were the state, the missions, and the industrial and big companies there.

Finally, after the support of neighboring colonies that were gaining independence and the growing resistance of the lack of democracy, Belgium Congo gained its independence from Belgium on June 30, 1960 and was named the Republic of Congo. It was more commonly known as Congo-Léopoldville because its neighbor to the west was also called the Republic of Congo (which was commonly called Congo-Brazzaville because of the same name deal). In 1966, Congo-Léopoldville became the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Information from:
http://caxton.stockton.edu/hod/history and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_republic_of_the_congo