I found this reading very interesting. First, because the father allowed his native daughter to go to the missionary school, even though her mother disagreed with it. Second, because of the hypocritical events that occurred in the story as well. Ester's identity was completely stolen when she entered into a world and culture that was not her own. Her beliefs, faith and comfort was placed in St. Paul, who ended up betraying her and killing her spirit. I found it very hypocritical of St. Paul to try to convert Esther to his religion and his ways, however, when it came down to his nephew wanting to marry Esther, his attitude towards her changed. St. Paul was who she looked up to, and who she placed all her trust in when she had to leave and go to the mission school, and he betrayed her with his attitude towards the native people.
He even referred to Esther as a serpent, which is kinda symbolic because when I think of a serpent it takes me back to Adam and Eve in the bible. The Serpent was satan and he got Eve to eat the forbidden fruit and she gave some to Adam, which lead to their downfall. Within this story, I see St. Paul as the serpent and also Esther in some was as well. However, mainly St. Paul because he talked his nephew out of marrying Esther, the woman for who he loved dearly, and he wanted him to marry someone who was of his kind and not a girl who had native blood.
The ending of this story shocked me, because I didn't think that Esther will kill Laurence because he listen to his uncle. However, I understood where Esther was coming from emotionally and this lead to her killing Laurence. She didn't want him to marry the other girl because she was in love with him and if she couldn't have him, then no one else could.
At the end of the story, I also found it very interesting that when they discovered Laurence's death they referred to her as a native who killed him and not as a women who was emotionally hurt my the things St. Paul's words and Laurence's decision to forget about her.
I was also quite shocked because of the ending, and definitely did not expect her to kill the man she loved. I felt that it was quite an ironic twist, however it showed the humanistic passion that Esther felt when in the story she was not thought if that way by others.
ReplyDeleteI think that you are right about the symbolism of Adam and Eve and the serpent. I feel that this story has a lot of symbolism, and even more that I was unable to realize.