Children are 'God's Bits of Wood'

Authors choose their titles very carefully. The better known books have lightly obscure tittles. In American literature I think about: To Kill a Mocking Bird, Catcher in the Rye, or Animal Farm; all of these books have a title that is a little bit ambiguous to what the meaning has to do with the title of the book. God’s Bits of Wood is the same, where it’s not clear why Sembene Ousmane chose that title. In chapter four the reader learned the meaning of the title. This comes in context on page fifty-one when Houdia M’Baye is talking about her relationship with her husband and her kids (this goes back to gender roles). The narrator says, “She (Houdia M’Baye) had brought nine of ‘God’s bits of wood’ into the world, and her successive pregnancies had made her dull and listless.” (51) Through this passage the reader finally learns what the title means. ‘God’s bits of wood’ has to do with children. I find this analogy very fascinating because children are the way the world lives on and are so banal that one rarely pays attention how they (kids) are a gift from God.  I now also understand the cover of the book, which is of a Senegalese woman holding her baby. Before you read what the title meant what did you think it was about? What are some other books that come to your mind when you think ambiguous titles?