Free Sample Essays > World Literature
The African Queen
Louisa lies. Rose leads the boat towards the reeds where they get lost. They get stuck in the mud. It rains at night and they find themselves actually moving. They become stick again and this time they have to row using canoe paddles. The propeller gets stuck on weeds and Charlie goes in the water to cut it out. When he surfaces he is covered in leeches. Rose use salt to remove them. The mud got worse and worse as they went along and Allnutt was forced to get out and pull the boat along. Both Rose and Charlie caught malaria. Rose dosed herself and Charlie regularly with quinine from the portable medicine chest in her tin trunk. Had it not been for that they probably would have died. They found the lake. Realizing their current muddy condition, they washed themselves off and polished the boat. When Allnutt is asleep, Rose prays and then realizes that she sinned in sleeping with Allnutt. She looks at him and feels no remorse for her sins. She thinks of him as a husband already. When they wake up they spot the Louisa and it was coming right towards them. It turns away and they realize that it’s just patrolling the lake. Rose and Charlie make the torpedoes and attach them to the front of the boat. All they had to do was ram the Louisa, and then the torpedoes would detonate. A great storm came along, sinking the African Queen and the hopes of delivering a blow for England. Charlie is brought to the President of the Court who questions him. He doesn’t answer any of the questions thinking that it’s no use because Rose is dead. An officer comes in the room with Rose and a buoy revealing the name African Queen. The President realizes who they are and how they came to the lake. A Belgian ship spots the Louisa and thinks it odd that the show a white flag. The Belgian lieutenant boards the ship and sees Rose and Allnutt sick with malaria. They bring them back and take them to the hospital tent. The Louisa is attacked by the Matilda and the Amelia which shoot it down. They save all the Germans so they won’t drown. Rose has to be sent back to England. To avoid being torn apart Rose has the consul marry her to Charlie.