The Power of Dreams

     The Bite of the Mango has many themes, but one significant one in chapter 7 is "the Power of Dreams". On page 65, Mariatu discovers she is pregnant. She is young and innocent, and has no idea how someone becomes pregnant. People in Mariatu's village had told Mariatu that "babies came from a woman's belly button," (page 67). I found it interesting that they hide information about the human reproductive system in Sierra Leone to young girls, where rape is obviously a prominent issue. The way Mariatu becomes pregnant is by rape, which proves that it is a problem.
     Mariatu is raped by Salieu. Salieu is an older man, who already has one wife, but eventually wants to marry Mariatu as well. Salieu's sexual abuse to Mariatu grows gradually. The first night he shows up while Adamsay and Mariatu are sitting around a fire while they are hiding out in the bush from the rebels. Eventually, Mariatu tries to go to sleep. While laying there, she hears heavy footsteps and Salieu lays down beside her. He starts to touch her without consent, and Mariatu screams for help. The assault ends when Ibrahim and Mohammed return.
     He begins to spend more and more time around Mariatu and her family. He comes over often to ask for supplies and "he'd look at me [Mariatu] through the slits in the corners of his eyes," (page 69, Mariatu). One day, when Mariatu is alone at her hut, Salieu shows up. He grabs her, drags her down the hall, and throws her on the floor in a room at the back of the hut. Salieu then proceeds to rape her.
     A while after she finds out she is pregnant, Mariatu has a dream. In the dream Salieu appears and says "I know you didn't like what I did to you, and I know you weren't ready for this. But I love you. And I want you to have this baby for me, because my wife and I only had girls. All I ever wanted was a son," (page 74).
     We learn that dreams play a significant role in Mariatu's culture. Elders in her culture believe that if you dream of palm oil, blood will spill by the end of the day. Mariatu has a dream about palm oil, and on the same day her hands get cut off by the rebels.
     As her dream prophesied, Mariatu has a boy. This demonstrates the true power of dreams and how they can warn us about danger, sometimes by using symbols such as palm oil, and give us a glimpse into the future by showing us what could happen.