Leah's Likeable Change

Having the novel be written from the perspectives of Orleanna or her children allowed for each character to be developed outside of another’s point of view, and gave a fuller understanding of the events of the story by providing varying accounts. As the novel progressed, I found myself liking Leah’s character the most. She showed one of the most dynamic changes in the novel, and seems to hold the least bias in her descriptions of her surroundings. Leah proved to be a very interesting character because of her rebellion against allowing people to make assumptions on who she is, and her change in the initial devotion to following her father.

Leah puts a lot of effort into making sure people distinguish her from Adah, and that they see her as not extremely feminine. She mentions that she asks to keep her hair short to always have a way to keep her different from Adah. She often gets paired with Adah, whether it be in learning, house chores, or in description as part of a set of twins. However, even then she separates herself in small ways such as not learning French because Adah already has or carrying all of the water herself and having Adah follow behind (and subsequently leave her to be eaten by lions according to Adah). Leah also often expresses her disdain of household chores and prefers those that let her be outside. She also almost purposefully doesn’t put much effort into her embroidery for her chest, as she doesn’t think she will get married and doesn’t find it important to be viewed as a traditionally feminine. This made her a very interesting character have a perspective from as she is unique from her siblings but has these inner conflicts that impact the way she thinks about situations.

When Leah is first introduced, her most striking characteristic is how she will follow everything Nathan says. Despite having the same upbringing and education as Adah, she does not hold the same cynicism. Because of this, she wasn’t been able to view her father from the perspective other than that of a child. She couldn’t yet grasp that even he can have flaws. She initially holds a very strong faith in God and has the same mindset as Nathan in that they are in the Congo to save everyone. Leah thinks that she can be the one to help save them.  However, as she begins to comprehend the repeated failures of Nathan’s methods, and she sees the independence of ceremony and how the people living in the Congo are able to survive much better than the Prices can, she begins to lose her faith both in her father and God. It is interesting to see her development both in her passages and from the description of others.

Maybe one of the most interesting aspects about this book is that though the narration switches characters, it stays within Orleanna and the children. This is important because though they may have had some discussion with Nathan on their going to the Congo, it really was none of their choice. Also, by having it narrated by women and children the novel shows their importance throughout lives of the family, especially Oreleanna's struggle to provide food that her family will eat while not expressing this to them.

I found Leah to be an interesting character because of her awareness of the way others view her and how she tried to take control of it. Also, she has one of the largest character changes because her following of Nathan was one of her largest traits, and growing beyond this shows both her intellectual growth and an increase in her independence and self-confidence. Because of the intriguing internal story happening for her within the plot of the novel, she became my favorite character.