The death of a loved one can take a mental and emotional toll on an individual. Their minds begin to wander, thinking about how and why this happened, trying to answer the questions that cannot be answered. Imagination takes over and a sea of powerful thoughts and attitudes take over. This happens to Orleanna Price, from Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible. Upon the death of her youngest daughter Ruth May, her mind evokes complicated and mixed feelings over time. These attitudes of confusion, guilt, and the need to move on are portrayed by the use of imagery in her mind. The initial shock of Ruth May’s death comes with a dose of confusion. After spending several years in the Congo at this point, and with that, living under the reign …show more content…
She feels that maybe if she had acted sooner, she would have been able to prevent the death of her daughter: “In Congo a slashed jungle quickly becomes a field of flowers, and scars become the ornament of a particular face…Africa swallowed the conqueror’s music and sang a new song of her own” (385). She recognizes the fact that the Congolese lifestyle and environment has changed her and her family’s outlook on life. By expressing this by showing how something that before would have been perceived as negative or scary, but now seems normal, shows how her judgment is changed. This effect is possible by the comparing these very different images, which goes to show how different Orleanna’s perspective is than before. She didn’t see what was really happening, and if she had done something about it, she would return home with four daughters rather than three. Looking back at her time in the Congo, only now does she understand that her situation was more dangerous than she had perceived it to be, and with that, she will live with guilt the rest of her life, since because she hadn’t seen the danger, she feels that she essentially allowed the death of Ruth May. By allowing the reader to contrast between the two opposite images, the shift in thought and the path to guilt is made