Kingsolver's Character Analysis: Adah
Kimberly Lopez
English 7 Pd. 3
Due: December 12, 2012
Why did Kingsolver create Adah to be what she is?
Based on the information already provided on the Price family, I feel Kingsolver made Adah out to be “different” as a way of proving the family’s biggest sin: rejection of God’s children. Although Adah had been born with a mental disability, I feel that she was made out to be the strongest and most intelligent in the family. As she learns the quickest and no matter what has happened to her, from Leah leaving her in the Lions dean to struggling alone within the family, she had never once complained or let herself be defeated. She’s the one in the family who would not do something she didn’t approve of in order to please another, not
even for her father. The one person who had not been blindsided by the material offerings of the world, but who had actually analyzed and appreciated the world for itself. She’s the most rebellious and the most down to earth of the Prices. On the other hand, I also feel that she’s a symbol for why the Price family fails at home, which ultimately leads to them failing at what they do. They’re all so busy criticizing others and trying to make Africa their new “Georgia”, that they don’t realize their major faults. They don’t notice the fact that they’re living in a distant home or that they’re so consumed with material possessions that they don’t even care for what lives, they don’t accept other people because of their “differences” as well as in some cases they can’t even accept themselves for what they are (Leah to be specific), and they definitely do not accept the help of others because they feel that only they know what’s right and what will work. Adah, in my own opinion, ultimately represents the family’s distortion and the family’s major form(s) of sin.
English 7 Pd. 3
Due: December 12, 2012
Why did Kingsolver create Adah to be what she is?
Based on the information already provided on the Price family, I feel Kingsolver made Adah out to be “different” as a way of proving the family’s biggest sin: rejection of God’s children. Although Adah had been born with a mental disability, I feel that she was made out to be the strongest and most intelligent in the family. As she learns the quickest and no matter what has happened to her, from Leah leaving her in the Lions dean to struggling alone within the family, she had never once complained or let herself be defeated. She’s the one in the family who would not do something she didn’t approve of in order to please another, not
even for her father. The one person who had not been blindsided by the material offerings of the world, but who had actually analyzed and appreciated the world for itself. She’s the most rebellious and the most down to earth of the Prices. On the other hand, I also feel that she’s a symbol for why the Price family fails at home, which ultimately leads to them failing at what they do. They’re all so busy criticizing others and trying to make Africa their new “Georgia”, that they don’t realize their major faults. They don’t notice the fact that they’re living in a distant home or that they’re so consumed with material possessions that they don’t even care for what lives, they don’t accept other people because of their “differences” as well as in some cases they can’t even accept themselves for what they are (Leah to be specific), and they definitely do not accept the help of others because they feel that only they know what’s right and what will work. Adah, in my own opinion, ultimately represents the family’s distortion and the family’s major form(s) of sin.