W. H. Hudson, Green Mansions Ch. 13-15

I.  Overview
 With Nuflo having narrowly escaping death by suicide and eternal torment in death by Rima’s mother, Hudson’s novel continues with the much anticipated trip to Riolama.  Abel returns to the Indians only to be held hostage by their constant watchfulness.  Feigning a trip to bathe, Abel is able to escape back to the forest after a six day absence.  Nuflo and Rima joyously welcome him back and they begin their journey.  While on the way, Rima stays apart from Nuflo and Abel and Nuflo is able to tell Rima’s story.  According to Nuflo, while with an evil band of Christian men he comes upon Rima’s mother.  Feeling that by helping her he will be saved eternally; Nuflo leaves his band of men and cares for her injured leg.  Upon her giving birth to a daughter, the priest and Nuflo name the child Riolama, Rima for short, after the place her mother is found.  Shortly before she dies, Rima’s mother beseeches Nuflo to take Rima someplace dry in the mountains so the Rima could live and grow to be healthy.  After her death, Nuflo fulfills his promise and takes Rima to the mountains of Parahuari, where the love story between Rima and Abel begins.

II.  Analysis:  Imagery
Imagery, in this novel, is Hudson’s way of making the forests and the characters real to the reader.  Rima is seen as a “shy and more reticent” (118) “half-human child” (141) with a “vague, misty, greenish appearance” (120).  Abel is struck by her “beautiful wild eyes” (119) “veiled by their drooping lashes” (117).  With this imagery, the reader can picture Rima as a human being with ethereal qualities that liken her to Mother Nature.  Always seen as a mysterious creature, we know that Rima “steals silently away” (117) and has sight “keen as a bird’s” (119).  As a child with her mother, Rima has a “pallid face” (127), “delicate lips” (128), and “always appeared frail” (139).  After her mother’s death, before going to Parahuari, Rima “began to fade and look more shadowy” (139).  Rima’s mother also has a distinct beauty.  Hudson states that her “dark hair was like a cloud from which her face looked out, and her head was surrounded by an aureole like that of a saint in a picture, only more beautiful” (135).  Like Rima, she is described as a “heavenly woman” (135) who utters “mysterious and melodious sounds that fell from her own lips” (138).  These are the same sounds that she taught Rima and that Abel has followed through the forest many a time.  The bird-like sounds, uttered as a language, help the reader again distinguish Rima and her mother as sanctified from the rest of the world.
 Hudson also uses imagery in describing the forests and the atmosphere while the clan travels.  In the forests that Rima resides in, Abel finds “welcome shadows” (125) and “coolness, the sense of security” (126).  While traveling, on the other hand, the clan is “persecuted by small stinging flies” (132) and “intense heat and frequent heavy falls of rain” (132).   These descriptions help the reader feel Abel’s peace in the forest and his anguish in his travels.  Another vivid description is of the Indian Cla-cla who has “owlish eyes” (123) and “hoary hair and million wrinkles” (124).  The intense imagery that Hudson delivers presents the reader with a lens into the text to observe the constant action and activity of the text.

III.  Questions
1. Does Rima operate as a static or dynamic character within this text? Why?
2. What images are symbolic of Rima’s old life in Voa?