ap english homework.
Journal Topic-Orleanna in conflict with her own conscience
1.” Oh little beast, little favorite. Can’t you see I died as well? Sometimes I pray to remember, other times I pray to forget. It makes no difference. How can I ever walk free in the world, after the clap of those hands in the marketplace that were plainly trying to send me away? I had warnings. How can I bear the scent of what catches up to me? There was so little time to ponder right and wrong, when I hardly even knew where I was. In those early months, why, half the time I would wake up startled and think I was right back in pearl Mississippi. Before marriage, before religion, before everything.” Pages 89&90
The little beast Orleanna often speaks to is her conscience, the Congo completely changed her even in the eyes of her own children and she now try’s desperately to justify her actions. She’s trying to give reason to all of her failed efforts to keep her children safe because deep down she really feels that Ruth May’s death and quiet possibly the rest of the unfortunate events are her fault. She keeps asking herself; where did I go wrong? How could I have been so blind that I couldn’t see what was right in front of my eyes. Why didn’t I take the girls home sooner when I had the chance? She feels she let them down in their years in the Congo. She’s trying to sooth her soul and ease Ruth May’s passing her youngest, the one she doted upon. Yes the little beast is her restless heavy conscience filled with guilt and doubt, her voice say’s one thing but her heart and body say another. So she has to keep herself in a constant motion of justification.
2.” A stone would fly straight through him and strike the child made in his image, clipping out an eye or a tongue or an outstretched hand. It’s no use. There are no weapons for this fight. There are countless laws of man and of nature, none of these is on your side. Your arms go in their sockets, your heart comes up empty. You understand that the thing you love more than this world grew from a devil’s seed. It was you who let him plant it.” page 191
1.” Oh little beast, little favorite. Can’t you see I died as well? Sometimes I pray to remember, other times I pray to forget. It makes no difference. How can I ever walk free in the world, after the clap of those hands in the marketplace that were plainly trying to send me away? I had warnings. How can I bear the scent of what catches up to me? There was so little time to ponder right and wrong, when I hardly even knew where I was. In those early months, why, half the time I would wake up startled and think I was right back in pearl Mississippi. Before marriage, before religion, before everything.” Pages 89&90
The little beast Orleanna often speaks to is her conscience, the Congo completely changed her even in the eyes of her own children and she now try’s desperately to justify her actions. She’s trying to give reason to all of her failed efforts to keep her children safe because deep down she really feels that Ruth May’s death and quiet possibly the rest of the unfortunate events are her fault. She keeps asking herself; where did I go wrong? How could I have been so blind that I couldn’t see what was right in front of my eyes. Why didn’t I take the girls home sooner when I had the chance? She feels she let them down in their years in the Congo. She’s trying to sooth her soul and ease Ruth May’s passing her youngest, the one she doted upon. Yes the little beast is her restless heavy conscience filled with guilt and doubt, her voice say’s one thing but her heart and body say another. So she has to keep herself in a constant motion of justification.
2.” A stone would fly straight through him and strike the child made in his image, clipping out an eye or a tongue or an outstretched hand. It’s no use. There are no weapons for this fight. There are countless laws of man and of nature, none of these is on your side. Your arms go in their sockets, your heart comes up empty. You understand that the thing you love more than this world grew from a devil’s seed. It was you who let him plant it.” page 191