The Poisionwood Bible

Adah muses that the "Congo sprawls on the middle of the world. Sun rises, sum sets, six o'clock exactly. Everything that comes of morning undoes itself before nightfall: rooster walks back into forest, fires die down, birds coo-coo-coo, sun sinks away, sky bleeds, passes out, goes dark, nothing exists. Ashes to ashes" (Kingsolver 30). This profound stream of consciousness sheds light on what lies behind her silence. Adah's pattern of thought reveals that she is an observer, unlike the other members of her family. Her father, the preacher in all senses of the word, often overshadows Adah's pensive nature with his sermons of hell-fire and damnnation. While these outward expressions are, indeed, attention grabbing, it is Adah that holds some of the most widsom in the family. She does not seem to trifle with senseless things, like her sisters, and what she lacks in speech, she makes up in thought. The constant juxtoposition (i.e. sun rises, sun sets), as well as the onomotopoeia (i.e. birds coo-coo-coo) in her thoughts really allow one to get inside of her mind. Adah's preferred method of "stream of consciousness" speech is very similar to that of Faulkner in As I Lay Dying. Adah's character is very much like Darl. She is introverted, misunderstood, and essentially brilliant. However brilliant she may be, she is overlooked by her family, and her Georgia society. In contrast to other characters, the Congo presents Adah with a sense of self-worth and comraderie. While the other members of her family are smited by the Congo personally, Adah is embraced.