Evil Deed Live!

Through out most of Bel and the Serpent in the book Poisonwood Bible Adah seems to take a liking to palindromes. Here are some of the palindromes I found in Bel and the Serpent: "Eye on sleep peels no eye!" (343), "Lived a devil!" (360), "Evil deed live" (360, 362), "Eye, level eye!" (360), "Eye did peep did eye." (360). Also, she refers to a palindrome as an example of Ruth May's life when Ruth May dies: "The closing parenthesis, at the end of the palindrome that was Ruth May." (365). With all these Palindromes, there must be something significant about them, what they stand for or represent. Adah's observations and knowledge of the Congolese people and their culture is pretty impressive. Proof of this is in her explanation of the difference between the words Bantu and Muntu in Congo. When she explains to us the basic concept of what those words suggest about the Congolese people's culture and beliefs, we see that they don't believe someone truly dies. This concept is like that of the palindrome, it never truly ends, for you can go forwards and backwards and it will forever be the same sentence. I think that this section of the book focused more on death than any other topic. The chance of starving, the killing of beasts for meat, the death of Ruth May, and the death of a part of Orleanna when Ruth May died.