Disability In Adah's Book Backward

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Being in the Congo forces Adah to look at her disability in a different way—almost like reading a book backward. "Nobody cares that she 's bad on one whole side," she says, "because they 've all got their own handicap" (1.7.11). People in Kilanga are missing arms, legs, and eyes, and they go on about their daily business like it 's no big thing. We have a feeling she has the same view of her body as many people in Kilanga do: it 's just a tool, a vessel to carry her through this life.

But toward what? Adah hasn 't believed in God since she was a wee thing. As a result, she seems to have an easier time coping with her own father 's (lowercase "f") distance and abandonment. Plus, she doesn 't have even a quarter of the guilt that Leah lives