Bowles is showing us in this opening the disconnect between Pastor Dowe and the Indians. Pastor Dowe seems to think that the indians do not understand him. But that isn't what is going on. The indians actually understand enough of what he is saying. Bowles shows us this during Pastor Dowe's questioning of Nicholas. Nicholas is able to answer the Pastor's questions but Nicholas has a sort of indifferent attitude towards his questions. I think that Bowles is setting up a scenario where the indians have very little interest in what the Pastor is saying. There may be a disagreement in philosophies.
Pastor Dowe realizes that he has this disconnect with the Indians. So he picks up on their interests and their beliefs and manipulates them into being interested in his sermons. He originally thinks he is making this great connection with them. But it backfires on him. He doesn't succeed at changing their beliefs but he does make a connection with them. To the point where Nicholas gifts his young daughter to Pastor Dowe. This creates this point of tension. Pastor Dowe does not want to accept this gift. Nicholas seems to be offended of Pastor Dowe's less than thankful response. The inplication here is that Pastor Dowe does not really have a choice in he mater of accepting the gift of Nicholas' daughter. Pastor Dowe succeeded in capturing the interest of the Indians but failed at converting them from their beliefs to his. This creates this miscommunication; a point of contention where he is gifted Nicholas' daughter.
Welcome to the blog for Prof. John Talbird's English 220 class. The purpose of this site is two-fold: 1) to continue the conversations we start in class (or to start conversations before we get to class) and 2) to practice our writing/reading on a weekly basis in an informal forum.
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