Knowledge of Angels

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Amara and Josefa at the beach

The chapter begins with measuring tow things: Amara’s recovery after the experiences of her escape, and Amara’s progress so far.  The result of her abuse by the shepherds seems mainly to be in an increased reliance on Josefa;

She has also continued her learning of language.  She now is capable of stringing words together – ‘Me now hungry..’, ‘Go out…’, ‘Me not like..’.
But running through these first two paragraphs are references to something continuing dog-like about her: Josefa on a hot day finds her

And when Josefa runs towards the waves

When Josefa goes into the sea, at first Amara remains at the water’s edge, ‘whimpering’, and then, her

Josefa had ran naked into the sea.  When she had come back onto the beach to dry off, Amara, again like a dog, had begun licking the salt off her body, including off her naked breast.  Josefa, ‘burning with shame and awareness’, begins to dress again.  The reason is given for that shame:

This no doubt is to be related to Chapter 22.  Palinor there, with no belief in God, no compelling reason for shame about bodies, demonstrates to Dolca and Joffre how to make love.  There’s a running theme through the book – how ‘Christianity’ disregards, or worse, denigrates the body.

Josefa ceasing to think of God