Character Analysis
Coming or Going?
The middle Price daughter, Leah's twin, was born with hemiplegia, a disease that left her weaker on one side. It sure didn't affect her brain, though, because she's the smartest and most analytical of the family. Of course, she hardly ever talks in the first four books of the novel, so it's not surprising all she does is think. She reads a lot, from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to Emily Dickinson's poetry.
Adah would be right at home at Shmoop. Although she might call us Poomhs.
She's different from her family in other ways, too. When she's not reading, she's writing her own, super morbid free-form poetry: "If I were a doctor poet," she says, "I would spend all day with people who could not run past me, and then I would go home and write whatever I liked about their insides" (2.8.2). She also likes to read things backwards: "It is a different book, back to front, and you can learn new things from it" (1.8.11).
And we're pretty sure there's some symbolism going on here, because if you ask us, all this backwards-reading ties right in to her disability.
Differently Abled Adah
Being in the Congo forces Adah to look at her disability in a different way—almost like reading a book backward. "Nobody cares that she's bad on one whole side," she says, "because they've all got their own handicap" (1.7.11). People in Kilanga are missing arms, legs, and eyes, and they go on about their daily business like it's no big thing. We have a feeling she has the same view of her body as many people in Kilanga do: it's just a tool, a vessel to carry her through this life.
But toward what? Adah hasn't believed in God since she was a wee thing. As a result, she seems to have an easier time coping with her own father's (lowercase "f") distance and abandonment. Plus, she doesn't have even a quarter of the guilt that Leah lives with on a daily basis.
But she does have something else, something like compassion. Just because Adah doesn't believe in God and believes that all lives—from germs to humans—are equal, it doesn't mean she thinks all lives are worthless. She thinks the opposite: When she's almost trampled to death during the plague of ants, she does everything she can to stay alive. "If they chanced to look down and see me struggling underneath them, they saw that even the crooked girl believed her own life was precious" (3.20.15).
It's a Miracle!
When she goes to medical school, Adah discovers that she doesn't have to limp. Her hemiplegia has just been "a misunderstanding between [her] body and [her] brain" (5.7.2)—or, maybe, a reaction to the messed-up family dynamic. Once she's away from her family, she doesn't have to distinguish herself by limping. Or maybe, away from her father, she's able to use both sides of her body—and all of her brain. (We're pretty sure he wouldn't be into medical school for women.)
At the same time, Adah's limp is pretty crucial to her identity. She worries, "Will I lose myself entirely if I lose my limp?" (5.7.12). What do you think—does Adah change after she starts walking straight?
Adah Price's Timeline