Janaliz Serrano
Miss Given
Honors 11 English
5 February 2018
Response #3
In this novel Orleanna states that “to live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebrations we mortals really know” (385). In life people change and that is inevitable, what they do with the knowledge that they get throughout their lifetime is up to them. As Orleanna says, each person’s story is not their own, they take bits and pieces of these “words” and create it. These “words” are every interaction, every choice, and every piece of knowledge obtained in a single lifetime. This is how people build a life for themselves and are remembered.
When describing her mother, Adah mentions that “she constantly addresses the ground under her feet.
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In the first chapter Orleanna is the narrator who describes the setting and talks about a ruin that is so bad that it does not seem possible that it could have happened. She also goes on to foreshadow the death of her youngest child, Ruth May. She also asks for forgiveness and discusses the reasons for why it took her so long to leave her husband. In the last chapter it seems as though Ruth May is the narrator who is responding to her mother. As stated in the first chapter, there is a “woman with four girls in tow.” In the last chapter “the same woman...only [has] three daughters.” This shows that this is occuring after Ruth May’s death and she is saying, “Mother, you can still hold on but forgive, forgive and give for as long as we both shall live I forgive you, Mother” …show more content…
Especially Ruth May seeing as she becomes the jungle after her death. It adds to the concept of life after death. Ruth May stated earlier in the book how she wanted to become a snake and she died at the hands of a snake. She was then transformed and looks after her family as she lives in the trees of the jungle. This chapter makes the reader see behind the meaning of life and forgiveness. Orleanna and the rest of the Price girls are filled with guilt as they cope with the loss of their sister, Ruth May. In the end, as one would like to think, Ruth May is telling them that she forgives them and that they need to move