Mistake

At some point or another, everyone seems to have a problem with Nathan. The husband and father roles have diminished out of sight due to his diligent focus on saving the Lord's lost sheep.
Orleanna has serious regrets of marrying him. She seems SO miserable, but cant break off her marriage because a)her children b)their religion c)he\s the provider and d)he's crazy

"What did I have? No money, that's for sure. No influence, no friends I could call upon in that place, no way to overrule the powers that governed our lives. This is not a new story: i was an inferior force." pp. 193.

Before i said how we see more of Orleannas perspective at the beginning of each chapter, and through her own words and the observations of her children, she hates being in the Congo and she hates being with Nathan, whom she has to love for obligatory reasons. Learning WHY she had married him and how he changed due to the army was finally a relief.

This relationship she has with her husband reminds me a loott of somone i know, whose name I won't disclose though, obviously. I just know that for a while she almost wanted to break things off with him because he was soo not involved in the family-with her or the kids- but rather lived like a hobbit, reading his Bible all the time, working all the time, etc. etc. She couldnt leave him though, for the sake of money and her kids. Though they didnt have much of a fancy for him either.