Different Paths

Although the four Price sisters were members of the same family and endured similar experiences, they all differ in so many ways.  There is no questioning the fact that their time in Africa had a profound impact on each of them.  However, the manner in which which each girl shows the impact is unique.

Rachel is Rachel.  From the beginning of the book she was an egocentric American girl who could not fathom the idea of having to look up from her own little bubble.  One would assume (and hope) that as she grew older she would become more mature and perhaps show a bit more depth.  However, it seems as though for Rachel her experience in Africa and the arguable trauma she endured ruined any chance of her growing out of her ecocentric tendencies.  It seems as though by marrying multiple men who were horrible and opening a hotel, Rachel was covering up her pain.  From a psychological perspective, she was represses the experiences that she felt were too traumatic to think about.  She is trying to forget the death of Ruth May, the rage of her father, the disease, the animals burning, and so on.  Rachel is angry about how Africa ruined her in many ways.  As a result she feels the need to hate it.  She cannot even love her nephews who have an African father.

The perspective of Western literature that Rachel represents is the civilized vs savages.  In many ways she aligns with the feelings of Heart of Darkness.  She does not want to learn about the culture. She does not want to learn people's names or what they enjoy doing.  Like the characters in Heart of Darkness and other post-colonialist works which demonize the African continent and its people, Rachel does not want to think about the place that "ruined" her as having any merit.

Leah is in many ways the opposite of Rachel.  Instead of hiding from the fact that Africa was now a part of her, she embraced it and continued to live much like she did as a young girl in Africa.  By marrying Anatole, Leah refused to in any way demonize Africa and its people.  Instead she made herself a part of Africa.  Unlike Rachel, Leah does not look down upon dark skin.  Instead she wishes that her white skin would not stand out so much.  Africa is a part of Leah.  When she goes home to America she feels out of place.  She does not like how it smells like nothing.  She is disgusted by the way people look at Anatole and their sons.  Instead of running away from the Africa that consumed her childhood, Leah made a home out of it.  She became educated and wanted to work to heal the torn up country that tore apart her family.

The perspective of Western literature that Leah represents is the one that is disgusted by mistreatment of Africa.  It is the perspective that wants to show Africa as the whole, complex continent that it truly is.  It is the honest perspective that tries to tell things as they are while sympathizing with the people who are involved in the stories.

Adah is more like Leah than Rachel but is truly unique.  After leaving Africa, Adah really struggles with understanding why she lived and Ruth May did not.  After seeing so much sickness and death and pain, Adah wanted to understand more.  This is probably why she decided to go into the medial profession.  She took the uncertainty and trauma of her African experience and turned it into something useful.  Out of all the sisters Adah probably has the most questions about why everything that happened in Africa happened as it did.

The perspective of Western literature that Adah represents is the questioning perspective.  It is the one that asks why things happen as they do.  It is the one that asks why good people die and bad people live.  It is the one that asks what the point of life is.

Ruth May was the unlucky one.  She died while her sisters lived.  Obviously as far as the impact that Africa had on her, it was major.  She lost her life.  However, while she was alive Ruth May embraced life.  Ruth May was too young and undeveloped to really fully represent a piece of Western literature. However, if she did it would involve innocence.