Summer Reading Essay

8.17.2012

AP Literature Assignment #1.
Summer Reading Essay.

“Last of all came Adah the monster, Quasimodo, dragging her right side behind her left in her body’s permanent step song sing: left… behind, left… behind.”

“Now she understood that Anna could not have been in lilac, that her loveliness consisted precisely in always standing out from what she wore, that what she wore was never seen on her. And the black dress with luxurious lace was not seen on her; it was just a frame, and only she was seen—simple, natural, graceful, and at the same time gay and animated.”

            The two quotes describe two individuals who are very contrasting in physical appearance, but represent the same idea of “change” in an individual. The first quote describes Adah Price, one of the twin daughters of the Price family from Kingsolver’s novel, The Poisonwood Bible. The second quote describes Anna Karenina, the beautiful lady of Tolstoy’s grand novel, Anna Karenina.

           

            The differences between these two characters are very easy to spot. First, one will realize that while Adah is not physically attractive due to her disability (she has to drag her right side due to a brain dysfunction), as attested by the quote above, Anna Karenina almost epitomizes physical beauty. The quote above is how Kitty describes Anna’s unmatched beauty – her beauty is so great that everything she wore, no matter how luxurious or lavish, simply vanished under her aura of beauty. Second, Adah is a very independent person, not relying on anyone’s attention or help, although her disease makes it difficult for her to be dependent. She claims that “silence has many advantages,” and spends most of her hours reading and lost in thought. On the other hand Anna is a woman who desperately needs the attention of another being, especially her lover. This insecurity of Anna eventually drives her mad to the point that she declares that her lover, Vronsky, “had not simply cooled towards her, he hated her, because he loved another woman…” Lastly, it is important to note that Adah, despite her disadvantages and hardships clings on to life. During a catastrophe in the village, when millions of ants attack, Adah tries desperately to save herself although she does not know why she did so. She states, “the wonder to me now is that I thought myself worth saving. But I did. I did, oho, did I!” Anna Karenina, on the other hand, despite her advantages and beauty, flings herself towards death because of a momentary hatred of Vronsky. This fact that Anna eventually falls do death and Adah to life brings one to realize, ironically, the similarity between the two characters.

           

            The trait that Adah and Anna share, despite all their differences, is the fact that they both go through a major, life-changing transformation. Adah, in the beginning of the novel, as described earlier, was the quite, disabled girl that no one seemed to care about, even to the point that her own mother chose to save Ruth May, her younger sister, while leaving Adah to fend on her own. However, her hardships actually lead her to a breathtakingly beautiful transformation. She becomes a doctor and a prominent researcher in the United States, and even her physical disabilities heal after time. Most importantly her relationship with her mother is changed. Constantly plagued by the fact that her mother did not choose to save her and that she would choose to save another again, she confronts her mother, to learn that her mother only chose her (after Ruth May’s death and during the escape out of the village) because she was the second youngest after Ruth May. Though to many this may be a devastating answer, she learns to accept it and just live. Gradually, Adah becomes the daughter that ends up with her mother – realizing that the love her mother held towards her could not be expressed in words, but expressed in their life of living together. On the other hand, Anna Karenina goes through a transformation that leads to her death. Anna, who was so beautiful and charming in the beginning of the novel, loses everything when she decides to have an affair with Vronsky. She loses her standing in society. She loses her husband and her beloved son. And in the end, she loses the inner beauty that made her so charming. She began to see everything as vile and disgusting, as it is made clear when she describes a couple: “Anna saw clearly how sick they were of each other and how they hated each other. And it was impossible not to hate such pathetically ugly people.” This gradual degradation of her soul ultimately leads to her death.

            Anna and Adah are two very different individuals. Yet the fact that both characters represent “change” in their respective novels unites the two characters together. Adah, ugly and disabled, finds healing and learns the importance of life. Anna, beautiful and charming, loses the joy of life and loses all hope, leading to death.

            In short, the ultimate example of salvation and the ultimate example of destruction.