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There’s no better symbol for the fallacies of imperialism than the hills of soil that Mama Tataba builds for the Prices’ garden in Kilanga. Mama Tataba knows from personal experience that the best way to grow hearty crops is to arrange the seeds with little piles of soil around each one, so that the seeds can withstands the heavy rains. But because of his arrogance, Nathaniel Price refuses to listen to Mama Tataba, and re-arranges the garden as soon as Mama Tataba is done with her work. When the rains come and Mama Tataba is proven correct, the hills of soil become a sinister symbol for the foolishness of the Western colonizers who arrived in Africa and ignored the African people’s experiences and ideas altogether.
The Hills of Soil Quotes in The Poisonwood Bible
The The Poisonwood Bible quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Hills of Soil. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Book 1, Chapter 6
Quotes
Several days later, once Father had regained his composure and both his eyes, he assured me that Mama Tataba hadn’t meant to ruin our demonstration garden. There was such a thing as native customs, he said. We would need the patience of Job. “She’s only trying to help, in her way,” he said.
Related Characters:
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Explanation and Analysis:
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The Hills of Soil Symbol Timeline in The Poisonwood Bible
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Hills of Soil appears in The Poisonwood Bible. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 1, Chapter 6
...eye. Mama Tataba tells Nathan that he’s farming the soil wrongly—he needs to make tiny hills of soil around each seed. Nathan insists that he’s doing his job right—he’s been farming...
(full context)
...find that Mama Tataba has been reshaping the entire plot of soil to make small hills. Nathan, annoyed, says that Mama Tataba is just trying to help, in her way, and...
(full context)
Book 1, Chapter 9
...notice that the plot of soil that Mama Tataba had advised Nathan to reshape into piles has been destroyed by the deluge: the seeds have been swept away as a result...
(full context)
