OK, I'm going to start with "The Things We Carried" Kilanga, 1959. The beginning of the book is really confusing.
Leah(p. 13-19)
Age:14
-"Father feels makeup and nail polish as warning signals of prostitution, the same as pierced ears." (16)
-"Each one of us arrived with some extra responsibility biting into us under our garments: a claw hammer, a Baptist hymnal, each object of value replacing the weight freed up by some frivolous thing we'd found the strength to leave behing. Our journey was to be a great enterprise of balance. My father, of course, was bringing the Word of God-- which fortunately weighs nothing at all." (19)
Ruth May(p.20-21)
I am unsure of her age at this point, although I know she is the youngest of her sisters. She thinks like a young child should think, she is ignorant. She is 5, as told from Rachel in the next page.
Rachel(p.22-29)
-"We are supposed to be calling the shots here, but it doesn't even look to me like we're in charge of a thing, not even our own selves." (22)
-"I wept for the sins of all who had brought my family to this dread dark shore." (29)
Rachel seems to really dread being in Africa. She finds herself wishing she was back in Georgia, where it is clean and she has machine washed clothes.
Adah(p.30-34)
-"Our Father speaks for all of us, as far as I can see." (32)
-"Oh, I can easily imagine the fetal mishap: we were inside the womb together dum-de-dum when Leah suddenly turned and declared, Adah you are just too slow. I am taking all the nourishment here and going on ahead. She grew strong as I grew weak. (Yes! Jesus loves me!) And so it came to pass, in the Eden of our mother's tomb, I was cannibalized by my sister." (34)
I find it strange that Adah always calles her father Our Father. Notice both our and father is captilalized.
Leah(p.35-42)
-"I know he must find me tiresome, yet still I like spending time with my father very much more than I like doing anything else." (36)
-" 'Mama Tataba,' he said at last, 'I've been tending the soil ever since I could walk behind my father.' "(40)
-"This is what I admire about Father: no matter how bad things might get, he eventually will find the grace to compose himself. Some people find him overly stern and frightening, but that is only because he was gifted with such keen judgment and purity of heart."(41)
Leah seems to really respect her father. She looks up to him and wants his approval.
Rachel(p.43-49)
-"While we're on the subject, you should see what the Congolese run around in. Children dressed up in the ragbags of Baptist charity or else nothing at all. Color coordination is not a strong point..."(43)
-"Bosoms may wave in the breeze, mind you, but legs must be strictly hidden, top secret."(43)
-"But the men said no, that was not to be. The women were so opposed to getting dunked in the river, even on hearsay, they all kept their children extra far from church that day."(46)
-"Of course, everyone kept staring at me, as they always do here. I am the most ectreme blonde imaginable."(47)
Rachel cares a lot about looks, clothing, etc. However no one in Africa really cares, but her. Also since she is so blonde, she gets the most attention. The father wants to have people baptised in the river, the the Africans are so against it.
words:
regaled,17
hootenanny,25
gallimaufry, 34
perfusion, 39
I'll add in the rest later.
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