How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The geographical position, and the height of the land combined to create a landscape that had not its like in all the world. (1.1.2)
The Baroness comes out swinging with some heavy-handed claims that the Ngong Hills are like no other place in the world. Maybe she needs to insist on the uniqueness of her home in order to justify writing a whole book about it; or maybe it really is that special.
Quote #2
In the highlands you woke up in the morning and thought: Here I am, where I ought to be. (1.1.3)
There is something about Kenya that makes the Baroness feel right at home, even though her real home is far, far away in Denmark. She tries to convince the reader that it's the air, the altitude, something geographical. Are you buying it?
Quote #3
In my day, the Buffalo, the Eland and the Rhino lived in the Ngong Hills—the very old Natives remembered a time when there were Elephants there—and I was always sorry that the whole Ngong Mountain was not enclosed in the Game Reserve. (1.1.9)
First of all, we just gotta say that we really dig the whole capitalizing of the animals' names. It gives a sort of a storybook quality to the whole idea of the Ngong Hills. Second of all, the idea of closing off the whole place in a Game Reserve is kind of like what this book is trying to do—preserve a piece of Africa that is disappearing or already gone.
Quote #4
The early morning air of the African highlands is of such a tangible coldness and freshness that time after time the same fancy there comes back to you: you are not on earth but in dark deep waters, going ahead along the bottom of the sea. (3.8.10)
In this beautiful metaphor the air is likened to water, and the land becomes the ocean floor. Africa is such a different place for the Danish author that she might as well be on a submarine as riding in a car through the highlands.
Quote #5
Her in the highlands, when the long rains are over, and in the first week of June nights begin to be cold, we get the fireflies in the woods. (4.1.5)
You might think fireflies in June are a normal part of the delicious days of summer, but for the Baroness the sight of them was exciting enough for her to put down in her "Immigrant's Notebook" and she related them strongly to Africa.
Quote #6
Africa, in a second, grew endlessly big, and Denys and I, standing upon it, infinitely small. (4.8.36)
Hunting lions is no joke, and when the Baroness and Denys go out to try to shoot not one but two of the big cats things get real, real quick. This crazy image of Africa growing gigantically and the two characters shrinking, Alice-in-Wonderland-style, kind of reminds you what a wild world they've thrown themselves into.
Quote #7
Trees grow up so quickly in Africa, in ten years' time you walk comfortably under tall blue gum trees, and wattle trees, which you have yourself, in the rain, carried in boxes from the nurseries, twelve trees in a box. (5.1.7)
Africa is made out to be the Miracle-Gro of continents in Blixen's description, where you can get rich quick (hey, "quick" is a relative term) by planting trees that will just shoot up and grow fully before a European tree could even cast a shadow.
Quote #8
The Kikuyus, when left to themselves, do not bury their dead, but leave them above ground for the Hyenas and vulture to deal with. The custom had always appealed to me, I thought that it would be a pleasant thing to be laid out to the sun and the stars, and to be so promptly, neatly and openly picked and cleansed; to be made one with Nature and become a common component of a landscape. (5.2.23)
We can't say we really dig the idea of our dead bodies being picked at by hyenas and vultures, but what the Baroness seems to be getting at is that she likes this idea of becoming one with nature that really only seems to be possible in Africa, where the Natives, in her view, are already part of nature. She wishes she could be a part of Africa, but her culture keeps her from the wild life.
Quote #9
Whenever I was ill in Africa, or much worried, I suffered from a special kind of compulsive idea. It seemed to me then that all my surroundings were in danger or distress, and that in the midst of this disaster I myself was somehow on the wrong side, and therefore was regarded with distrust and fear by everybody. (5.3.26)
The visions of Kenya also have a dark side for the Baroness. While the natural stuff is all beauty and happiness, her relationships with the actual people are not quite so easy, and anytime she has a moment of weakness, like illness or anxiety, she starts to see her environment as dangerous rather than magical.
Quote #10
From there, to the South-West, I saw the Ngong Hills. The noble wave of the mountain rose above the surrounding flat land, all air-blue. But it was so far away that the four peaks looked trifling, hardly distinguishable, and different from the way they looked from the farm. (5.5.29)
As she finally leaves the farm, Nairobi, and ultimately Africa, the Baroness is faced with the fact that her vision of Africa will be different now. Instead of the close-ups she enjoyed every day from her home, now she sees Kenya from a distance, and it's different.