(Cluster 4: Orleanna finds the cause of Ruth May's deadly bout with malaria and Nathan makes an arrangement with Eben Axelroot to prevent Rachel from having to marry the chief. Ruth May continues to have hallucinations from her fevers.)
Rachel gets frantic over the prospect of marrying the chief and demands to be taken back home. Nathan retaliates by assigning her two rounds of the verse. Although Leah sees humor in the situation, she and Adah feel sorry for her and help her complete the hours of copying. In an attempt to come up with her own solution, Rachel begins acting "peculiar" by covering herself from head to foot, even indoors, and combing her hair in bizarre ways.
Orleanna shows little patience for Rachel as she is still dealing with Ruth May. At one point they decide to move Ruth May's bed into the living room so they can keep a better eye on her. They thus discover that the child has been sticking her malaria pills to the wall behind her bed instead of swallowing them. There is one pill for each day they have been in the Congo.
Axelroot agrees to help create the appearance that Rachel is engaged to him. Rachel agrees to the scheme in hopes that she will be able to butter up Axelroot enough to get him to take them out of the Congo and it may be better than trying to act like the "retarded" daughter which had been her own original plan.
Axelroot himself has at least cleaned up a bit to the point that Rachel can see that he is almost handsome. However, she knows that he is no less a creep. He has code names for everyone and claims to have inside information all the way to the level of the CIA. He tells her that being an errand boy for missionaries is just his cover, and that he is actually a very important figure in Congo history. Rachel doesn't bother repeating any of his information, partly because she doesn't believe it and partly because she thinks she is obscuring the "real Rachel Price."
Ruth May continues to have hallucinations from fever. She hears bits and pieces of conversation although much of it is over her head and she misinterprets it. For example, she sees Tata Ndu in multiple colors and hears him tell Nathan that when he marries Rachel she will have to have the "circus mission" so she won't want to run around with other people's husbands.
Ruth May thinks that she is sick because of sins she has committed such as trying to see Nelson naked and lying to her mother and seeing Axelroot's diamonds. She doesn't understand the connection with the malaria pills, but says that if she dies she will come back in a tree where she can look down on everyone without them seeing her.
Leah is developing a fine sense of humor regarding Rachel's predicament. She calls it a "generous" offer and explains that they cannot risk offending Tata Ndu by simply turning down his offer for Rachel. Rachel's crazy behavior is a deliberate attempt to act insane or "retarded' as she thinks the chief will not want her if it looks like something is wrong with her.
Brother Fowles had warned them to respect the chief; one of the things the girls has learned is that, contrary to American individualism, the Africans do not act alone. But the time Tata Ndu approaches the white people with any kind of idea, he has already discussed it with subordinate chiefs. Thus, when they talk to him they are effectively talking to the entire village.
The concept of the vote is further explained by Anatole. The idea of pebbles being used as ballots was Belgium's idea; Africans usually do things by unanimous agreement and will continue talking about an issue until everyone agrees on the action that should be taken.
Ruth May continues to show the effects of her father's teaching. She believes that anything bad had to be a result of sin; thus she thinks that she broke her arm because she was spying, and got sick because she had torn up some of Adah's pictures and had tried to see Nelson naked. In her delirium, she recalls a lot of childish incidents that may or may not have been misbehavior on her part.
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Cite this page:
Ruff, Karen DA. "TheBestNotes on The Poisonwood Bible".
TheBestNotes.com.
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