In literature circle today, my group and I discussed a lot of interesting connections and foreshadowing we found in Bel and the Serpent. It starts off with Nathan talking about the scripture story of Bel and the Serpent. Bel is a statue believed by the Babylonians to be a god because of the tons of food she ingests everyday. A boy Daniel proves them all wrong when he lays ashes around it and catches the priests who were stealing all the food by their footprints. Supposedly this story was ment to be much scarier than the summary I provided because it comes from the Old Testament, which was best known for manipulating people into becoming good christian believers by the way it "scares the dickens out of you," as Leah puts it. At the end of the chapter when the readers are hit with the Death of Ruth May we are somewhat put into the detective Daniel's position as we discover the culprit to be Tata Kuvudundu by the six toed foot prints he left behind when he brought the snake. The green mamba snake was ment for Nelson, however, as an animal sign to carry out his profecy that the animals would turn on the people of Kilanga on account of their ignorance towards the old ways. In one way, Tata Kuvudundu was acting almost exactly as the priests by tricking the people into thinking certain things were being made to happen by a god when in reality it was mere mortals. In another sense he was acting similarly to Nathan Price because he was using scare tactics to trick people into believing.
Another foreshadowing we noticed was the title of the chapter. In the summary we get of the scripture there is no actual mentioning of a snake. The title also closely resembles the belle and the serpent which would mean "girl and the serpent" possibly repesenting Ruth May and the snake. I got to thinking that maybe Daniel was the sneaky serpent in the scrispture because he ratted out the ministers, in the actual story the snake incident is responsible for ratting out Tata Kuvudundu. These were just some things I noticed and they led me to a few questions.
Do Nathan and Tata Kuvudundu have more things in common besides their teaching tactics?
So far I'm not sure although being priests they both have to deal with coming up with ways to inspire followers and have both seen the benefits of scaring people into believing. They both believe they know best on religious matters and both seem pretty crazy in the head. I think they both have been scared themselves lately in the book because both of them have experienced a loss of followers. Does fear lead to fear?
Why do scare tactic's work and are they the best way to accomplish things?
When emotion is incorporated into any type of teaching I think the biggest results occur. If doing/learning something gives you desirable results (happiness, laughter) you will want to do that thing. If something makes you scared, sad or threatens you on the other hand you will definetly stay away from that. I think using this theory is a pretty intelligent way Nathan, Tata Kuvudundu, the bible, teachers, parents, and friends have realized using emotions can achieve a certain outcome. I also believe fear is one of life's strongest and most powerful emotions.
Why is fear such a strong and intense emotion?
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