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Circling the Sun


An intoxicatingly vivid portrait of colonial Kenya and its privileged ...
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Do you think Beryl was more made for life in Kenya than the others in her circle? Is there a place in your life that you would describe the same way?

Created: 08/26/16

Replies: 11

Posted Aug. 26, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
davinamw

Join Date: 10/15/10

Posts: 3442

Do you think Beryl was more made for life in Kenya than the others in her circle? Is there a place in your life that you would describe the same way?

At the beginning of the book, Beryl reflects that her father's farm in Njoro was "the one place in the world I'd been made for." Do you feel this is a fitting way to describe Beryl's relationship with Kenya, too? Did she seem more suited–-more made for–-life there than the others in her circle? Is there a place in your life that you would describe the same way?


Posted Aug. 30, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
kariner

Join Date: 07/20/16

Posts: 13

RE: Do you think Beryl was more made for life in Kenya than the others in her circle? Is there a place in your life that you would describe the same way?

She most definitely was more fit than the others in her circle. This was the only life she knew. The others came to Africa to make a new life. They were trying to make Africa to suit their needs instead of adapting to lie in the wild. Beryl, on the other hand knows Africa. She appreciates it. She will not let Africa bring her down but will grow and become great with it. Africa is a part of who Beryl is.


Posted Aug. 30, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
dorothyl

Join Date: 04/15/12

Posts: 146

RE: Do you think Beryl was more made for life in Kenya than the others in her circle? Is there a place in your life that you would describe the same way?

Her life in Africa enabled her to be free and pursue dreams that would have been impossible in other environments at that time.


Posted Aug. 30, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
Rebecca L.

Join Date: 02/08/16

Posts: 56

RE: Do you think Beryl was more made for life in Kenya than the others in her circle? Is there a place in your life that you would describe the same way?

I find this question interesting because my thought process leads me down a "nature vs nurture" road with this one. If Beryl had been raised in England would she still have turned out as fierce and wild? Would Africa still have been where she was "made for" if she hadn't moved there until her late teens and hadn't come from a broken home? I think that her idea that she was made for her father's farm possibly had more to do with how she was raised rather than her nature as a person.


Posted Aug. 30, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
lorrainep

Join Date: 07/13/16

Posts: 26

RE: Do you think Beryl was more made for life in Kenya than the others in her circle? Is there a place in your life that you would describe the same way?

Others in her circle came to be big fish in this new pond for they were minnows in the UK, in Africa they had power, drugs, and free love. They came for what Africa could give them but Beryl came to give Africa love.
She loved the people, the animals and the country.


Posted Aug. 30, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
melanieb

Join Date: 08/30/14

Posts: 265

RE: Do you think Beryl was more made for life in Kenya than the others in her circle? Is there a place in your life that you would describe the same way?

For a time, Beryl's life in Kenya was the only life she knew compared to the others in her circle. I think she was able to better adapt because she didn't have any other choice. I was a military brat from birth to 23 years old, moving with my active duty dad every 3-4 years and although I've now lived many years in one place, I feel that I'm made for a more nomadic lifestyle than others in my circle.


Posted Aug. 31, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
joanr

Join Date: 04/25/12

Posts: 51

RE: Do you think Beryl was more made for life in Kenya than the others in her circle? Is there a place in your life that you would describe the same way?

I do. Her upbringing taught her independence, resiliency, a love of open spaces, an indifference to convention, and an ability to reinvent herself again and again. During a conversation with Denys, Beryl asks him if he might ever feel "boxed in" in Africa. He tells her "no" because it's "always new. It always seems to be reinventing itself". Beryl agrees and thinks "Kenya was forever shedding its skin and showing itself to you all over again. You didn't need to sail away for that." Beryl's upbringing and her character made her able to adapt to the many "reinventions" of Kenya. At the same time, she was able to reinvent herself time and time again. She and Kenya were made for each other.


Posted Sep. 03, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
flute4u

Join Date: 08/14/13

Posts: 50

RE: Do you think Beryl was more made for life in Kenya than the others in her circle? Is there a place in your life that you would describe the same way?

Africa was Beryl's birthplace and in her blood. She was raised and molded more by the Kipsigis families than her biological family. Kibii was her lifelong umbilical cord back to Kenya and her roots. English society was a trap and a millstone around her neck.


Posted Sep. 05, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
barbm

Join Date: 02/04/16

Posts: 77

RE: Do you think Beryl was more made for life in Kenya than the others in her circle? Is there a place in your life that you would describe the same way?

Kenya was what Beryl knew. English society was unknown, and uncomfortable. In fact, even social events in Kenya seemed uncomfortable to Beryl. It is thought provoking: Is she authentic as an adventure seeker....or is she just comfortable in the realm that she knows? How often have I seen myself as an adventure seeker...but within a known environment? What kind of person is comfortable in the unknown?


Posted Sep. 05, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
andreab

Join Date: 07/29/14

Posts: 101

RE: Do you think Beryl was more made for life in Kenya than the others in her circle? Is there a place in your life that you would describe the same way?

Yes - she was born there, raised there by a father who didn't stifle her free spirit, and was well-suited to the lifestyle, climate and people. Her friends were transplants who came in search of adventure or to escape things in their pasts. Some did a better job adjusting than did others. Beryl was a native - she was Kenyan.


Posted Sep. 20, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
barb23703

Join Date: 10/04/15

Posts: 102

RE: Do you think Beryl was more made for life in Kenya than the others in her circle? Is there a place in your life that you would describe the same way?

There were very few that were actually from Kenya, and not somewhere else. What disappointed me was that Beryl so easily fell into step with those others and took on their attributes.


Posted Sep. 21, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
nancyh

Join Date: 06/25/13

Posts: 347

RE: Do you think Beryl was more made for life in Kenya than the others in her circle? Is there a place in your life that you would describe the same way?

Yes. Beryl was raised in Kenya and knew no other life. She liked the natives and as a child, did not understand why their should be a difference between them. I don't think she would be happy in a more restrictive place


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