Essay 1

From Georgia to the Congo

                Since the beginning of their mission to the Congo, the Price Family had cracks that turned into huge wedges by the end of the novel between the family. The Price family uprooted everything they had known for a country they knew nothing about. Leah is one of the most affected of the four daughters of this uprooting. As a result of leaving Georgia for the Congo, Leah experienced an alienation that transitioned her from an innocent, proper Christian girl into a dynamic independence fighter.

                Leah was probably one of her father’s favorite daughters if he had a favorite. She was very devout to her father and her faith; therefore, she didn’t understand why the villagers of Kilanga felt invaded by these missionaries. She was very content with everything she was taught to be, a proper women with no education. Leah understood, according to her father, that she was supposed to be an ignorant girl who would marry and take care of her family.

                Leah’s transition to her dynamic self began when she saw how she stood in her father’s and (to her) God’s eyes. As the mission in Kilanga grew increasingly difficult, Nathan began taking his anger out on his family through violence and condescension. The abuse Leah and the rest of her family experienced enlightened them. Leah had thought she would grow up to be a lonely farmer and she believed if she was as devout as her father was to their faith, then the rules that governed him would be the same for her. Leah began to realize that to her father she was just a worthless female and felt alienated from everything she knew.

                Through her friends in Kilanga, Leah was able to learn an=bout the history and the culture of the Congo. Pascal and Nelson taught her how to make things and Nelson even defended her when she went to go hunting with the men which was less than ordinary. Anatole was one of the few men who weren’t condescending to her and he was able to teach her much about the present issues the Congo was having, sparking her interest in their independence movement. In the End, Leah falls in love with Anatole and they fight against injustice as equals.

                Leah’s experience in the Congo was very alienating and enriching. Everything she had known, her values, her worth, her family, became extraordinary to the Leah at the end of the novel. But in the end she became accustomed to a new culture and life so much so that America, once her homeland, had become foreign. The exile Leah felt may have shook her early innocent path but soon showed her to a new more exciting one.