180 Degrees

In Exodus, we have seen some incredible 180 degree changes in the Price Family's members' thinking, physical characteristics, living conditions, and personal views on life. Adah for one was the most obvious. After 15-16 years of walking like a cripple, she miraculously is able to walk straight after she starts college back in the States and cooperates in a test. It turns out that because everyone expected her to be a cripple because of her problem at birth, she had the mind set that she was crippled for life and her body, subjected to the years of being forced to walk like a cripple, just didn't know how to stand up straight. So in the test she was forced not to walk entirely, which eventually worked. Also, in accordance to Adah's new found strength, she has lost her interesting ways at looking at things, her backwards reading skills, and her abstract way of thinking. She becomes more linear, more on a well define path as I see it. She finds her niche in life, someplace and some mind set that she is satisfied with although she makes some sacrifices regarding her past to get there.

Leah is the next more obvious turn around. Back before stepping foot on Africa and during the Price Family's first year in the Congo, Leah was devout and sought the attention of her Father. She was diligent in her tasks to prove to Father that she was a good daughter in the eyes of him and the Lord (or her father's god). This blind ambition finally ended when she saw with new eyes (with the help of Brother Fowles) what her Father truly was. Through Exodus we see Leah as an independent and defiant young woman. She marries Anatole, lives in deplorable conditions in the Congo, has four children (by the end), and turns semi-pro-communists. Wow. Her view point and guidance comes from the new direction and new perspective on life she has taken on. Instead of becoming a fanatic Christian like Nathan Price was, she becomes questions Christianity and becomes detached from it. To me, it looks like Leah lives for the present. She looks at the present situation she is given and focuses on it. In this sense she becomes more adaptable.

Something else that we discussed about Exodus was the relation of the book to its cover. On the cover of the Poisonwood Bible we see clearly five drawings of cave man like people. There is one copper colored one, and four gold ones arranged in smallest to tallest from left to right, with the copper colored one before the smallest one (although its the biggest person there), almost as though he/she is the leader. I think that for sure the four gold people are Ruth May and the sisters arranged in order of birth from left to right. The copper one though could be either Nathan or Orleanna Price. I am leaning more towards Orleanna but who knows? The symbolism of the cave man people drawing and how its presented is vague. What could it possibly mean? I am not sure.