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Fiona Campbell December 17, 2013 Block F Africa Death is how Life is cleansed. And forgiveness is how people emotionally move on. Many countries have experienced tragedy, filled with death and hatred, and they overcame it. Africa has done this time and time again. In Barbra Kingsolvers novel, The Poisonwood Bible, she infers that Africa has seen and overcome hardships many times. Africa can never truly change its way of life, because it has the capability to purify itself with Death and forgiveness, and revert back to the natural way of life. To balance Life, you need Death. A good boil, they say here, a good boil purifies the rotten meat. Thirty-five years of sleep like death, and now the murdered land draws a breath, moves its fingers, takes up life through its rivers and forests (540). In this quote, it explains that the Congo was trampled by war, foreigners, and their greedy ways; and how they are recovering within the country. The people of The Congo will not use other countries help to get itself on its feet, especially not when other countries are the ones mooching off of it in the first place. Leah comes to understand this as she gets older and is forced to live under the stress of richer countries bleeding the natural resources out from under her home. When the crisis is over, the one responsible suffers because they do not know quite what they are dealing with. I trod on Africa without a thought, straight from our familys divinely inspired beginning to our terrible end (9). Here Orleanna states that she took advantage of what Africa had to give her without even knowing, and by doing so her life suffered for it. Orleanna, in the book, lost Ruth May, her youngest daughter. Some could say that it was punishment on the family, the curse of bad luck.

But Orleanna wasnt the only one to trample Africa, but also the President Mobutu, This hand, which has stolen more than any other hand in the history of the world, hangs limp over the side of the bed (540). It all did not just end; it was not over when he died. It just slowly reset to how everything was before the war, before he was there. It is the way of Africa, This forest eats itself and lives forever (5). Like the forest, the people live off what the land has to give them, and then they die and give something back to the earth. Africa not only purifies with death, but also with forgiveness. Forgiveness is how the human heart moves on. And what is a country but a community of people? Like the girls when they sort of forgave their father at the end when they had a moment of silence and recognized that he was, at least, their father. And also, in the beginning, when Orleanna asks in the beginning in her very first chapter to judge her how we see fit. Let me claim that Africa and I kept company for a while and then parted ways, as if we were both party to relations with a failed outcome (9). Then she goes on to say that the reader might blame her for the things she has done, What is the conquerors wife, but not the conqueror herself? (9). The voice of Africa answers her at the end with, The sins of the fathers belong to you and to the forest and even to the ones in the iron bracelets, and here you stand, remembering their songs. Listen. Slide the weight from your shoulders and move forward. (543) Telling her to know that she has done wrong and to move on with her life, just like those slaves were treated horribly, the slave traders were by history. But in the end they were all forgiven by at least one person. And if that one person forgave, it may be enough to make the whole world a better place. In the end, Africa forgave Orleanna but forced her to pay the price of blood, her daughters life. Africa could not truly be changed just by conquerors wives, greedy presidents, or little dead girls; it simply cannot be messed with. Everyone learns their lesson from life and death; they

make mistakes, pocket their small miracles, and live life. But if everyone was able to accept death and forgive those who need the most forgiveness; the world would be able to move on faster. Do you think so?

Works CitedKingsolver, Barbra. The Poisonwood Bible: a novel. New York: HarperFlamingo, 1998. Print.