The Death Of Leah By Elaine R. Ognibene

Along with her father’s disapproval and lack of acceptance, the death of her youngest sister, Ruth May, also led to Leah’s rift between her family and the American lifestyle. Within her life, Leah’s leadership role led her to feel somewhat responsible to take care of the rest of her siblings. Even though Leah considered Ruth May’s death to be partially her fault due to her believed responsibility over her, Leah also found fault within her father and God. According to Elaine R. Ognibene, “Leah loses any faith that she had left in both her father and his God when Ruth May dies from a venomous snake, and her father has no words to explain the child’s death, except that his youngest daughter “wasn’t baptised yet.”...the daughter who had idolized

Her witness to her vulnerable and innocent sister’s death led Leah to see the true ignorance and helplessness that her father provided in her family’s time of need. Her father’s and God’s absence during one of her major times of need and turmoil caused Leah to see the lack of legitimacy to the of all the parts and areas of her life that once shaped who she was. In response to this realization of false hope in her former life and idols, Leah seeks to find the safety, security, and place to fit in to that contradicts all that she once believed in. This brand new hope and lifestyle stood right in front of her in the forbidden arms of Anatole and the ambitious yet crumbling conditions of the

She began to strive to please herself and experience the world with the acceptance that she had always longed for. With the assistance and support of Anatole, Leah was able to adapt and educate herself in order to fit into the Congo’s culture after both her twin sister, Adah, and her mother,Orleanna, were able to escape the Congo’s grip. Although Leah had the eventual opportunity to return home to Georgia, the restrictions and influences from her father and America’s privilege haunted Leah’s ideal of newfound independence and freedom. The trauma and wariness she experienced within her American upbringing led Leah to see that the only way she could have an independent life was to start a new one in the natural system of life in the Congo. The Congo was where Leah learned that she could flourish and blossom beyond her father’s or America’s expectations. Her choice to remain in the Congo with Anatole left both a physical and and mental distance between Leah and the rest of her surviving family in America. As Leah submerged herself into the Congo, she began to adapt and allow the culture of the Congo to influence her personality. Leah’s strength and newly discovered independence were suddenly captured by the Congo and its many influences. Her thoughts and beliefs were once soiled with her father’s supremacy and close-minded interpretations of the Bible. His disgust and disapproval of those in the Congo