Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible

Orleanna is the mother of four daughters and her being this character as well as her personality of being caring and invested in others creates her purpose for the story as retelling the story of her family and their trip to the Congo. She is creating this scene to show what happened and how she has learned from this experience and hopes to improve others lives based on her experiences. In the political allegory, Orleanna is the person in the world who has seen the wrong doing’s of the world, in this case the imperialism of countries, and advises those to step up and support the cause bettering lives of those less fortunate. Her character creates a call to action through the miseries she has seen her family struggle through. The author’s purpose in writing The Poisonwood Bible is to not only show the different influences and outcomes that colonialism has on people and nations, but to also show that it is wrong and not necessarily the superior way of doing something. Orleanna is the spokesperson for how the colonialism is wrong and something must

1. Barbara Kingsolver explores a quest in her novel “The Poisonwood Bible”. The criteria of a quest consist of a quester, a destination, a purpose, challenges, and reasons for the quest. In this instance the quester is Orlenna Price whom demonstrate guilt consistently. Orlenna is going there to accompany her husband, who is seeking to convert others. She feels guilty due to the death of her daughter and now that guilt remains as one of the challenges she faces. This is mostly transparent when she says “How do we aim to live with it?” (Kingsolver 9). Her guilt revolves around the destination to the Congo. Due to the Congo her one of her children survives. Now she has to deal with that challenge which is her guilt.

In the historical fiction The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver portrays the American perspective on Africa with the use of a physical representation. In the beginning of the novel, the Price family, the protagonists and narrators, have their own perspective of their journey in a village of Kilanga which is located in South Africa in a congo. The family came with mindsets of missionaries because the father of the family, Nathan, has the desire to spread the word of God and the religion of Christianity throughout the the Congo. However, his unusually amount of urge to change the faith and religion of the African people demonstrate the American perspective because of the ignorance and the lack of acknowledgement of the people and setting. Thus, Barbara Kingsolver uses Nathan as a physical representative of the American perspective. In order to demonstrate the arrogance of the American perspective on the African people, Barbara Kingsolver dramatizes the tension between Nathan and the African people, suggesting that the American people view their principles more superior than principles of the African people despite the difference in setting and influences.

Imperialism has been a strong and long lasting force, oppressing societies for generations on end. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, demonstrates how the Congo is continuously affected by this concept and ideology. Throughout this story, Kingsolver manipulates each family member and individual within the book, to better show Western and European ideas and attitudes, to convey the large amount of hypocrisy, in foreigner’s actions.

Book two is entitled “The Revelation” and the girls’ sections is entitled “The Things We Learned.” The Revelation was intended to mainly the Price family, excluding the father. The theme revelation has another definition: apocalypse. In the bible, the apocalypse leads to destruction and demise right before when God makes it a better place. In connection to the book, at this time the new prime minister, Patrice Lumumba was elected. This election set the stage for the independence movement in the Congo. In addition, Methuselah (the parrot) passes away as soon as he is freed, after being banned from liberation for most of his life. This foretells the destiny of Congo and the delicate independence they acquired. The Book of Revelation explains about how God’s creation encountered savagery and anguish so that it will become altered. The Belgian doctor who treats Ruth May for her broken arm has a little conflict with the Reverend. He prophesies that Congo will experience savagery and anguish if it changes to a self-determining state from a colony. In the Revelation section of the story, all the members of the Price family come to face a new sense of comprehension about the Congo’s culture, plants, animals and tradition. Throughout the book, the characters go through many hardships and success which permits them to learn

The Poisonwood Bible is the story of the Price family and their journey in the Congo. The novel is told from the perspective of the daughters Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May. The family suffers because of their father Nathan Price’s selfishness. The villainous acts of Nathan result in the loss of a family member and the feeling of guilt bestowed among all of the characters.

“ Imagine a ruin so strange it must never have happened First, picture the forest. I want you to be its conscience, the eyes in the trees.”

The closing of Poisonwood Bible recapitulates all that has happened throughout the eyes of no other than Ruth May, watching from the trees. She leaves the reader and he family with peace, she is not angry, she is not upset, she is content. “Being dead is not worse than being alive” (538). Ruth May’s insightful voice echoes that of her mothers in the beginning. Ruth May has matured, not only in her diction but her purpose has to morphed into

Throughout a lifetime, many things are gained; experience, wisdom, knowledge, as well as a sure sense of self. But along with all these great things come regret, guilt, and shame of past events. Everyone deals with these in different ways, sometimes turning to religion and denial as coping mechanisms. In the novel The Poisonwood Bible, By Barbara Kingsolver, each member of the Price family deals with a personal guilt either gained while on their mission in the Congo or long before. This novel exemplifies the different types of guilt the Price family experienced throughout their stay in the Congo, and shows various means of reconciliation and forgiveness as the guilt is absolved.

Wife to Nathan Price, Orleanna Price was a character that changed the most throughout the book. Orleanna began their mission to Congo under Nathan. Nathan or Christianity in the sixties, proved to favor the man yet shamed women. This was a significant reason why Orleanna had no opinion when going to Congo. After the death of her youngest

Sometimes in the novel the theme turns to a point when the narratives of the novel feels burden of guilt. Kingsolver writes this story from many different perspectives to show the guilt and show the narrow minded people like Nathan Price. It tells us their guilt about them when one of their sister died and the guilt they face as they are related in tragedies happened in the Africa. In the novel women’s subject is shown in the forefront. The Price’s family is missionary who are showing the violence and process of the colonization. Nathan Price is shown as a hero in the story who went to the Jungles of Africa and is fully devoted to his work. He as shown as both violence and ignorant man who took his family into the jungles. Orleanna Price believes in the god and care about her

Every little girl naturally desires to be daddy’s favorite, mimicking his every move, no matter the price. But what happens when she realizes that being daddy’s little girl may cost her life as she knows it? Imagine candidly abandoning your luxurious life in the United States only to relocate in the least modernized country known to man. In the novel titled The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, the Belgian Congo brings drastic change upon a person. There are many characters that undergo this process of change, which ultimately portrays to the reader the injustice of the world in its treatment toward the Congo. However, Leah Price consistently undergoes the most change from the beginning of the novel until the end. Throughout the novel

The Poisonwood Bible is a book about a man named Nathan Price who takes his wife and four daughters on a mission into the Congo. All of their ups and downs are documented throughout the story. This novel was written by Barbara Kingsolver in 1998. This story was inspired from her own personal trip that her father took her on, to the Congo, where they lived without and water, electricity, and many other necessities. During the time period that this book was being written, a lot of feminist and post-colonial literature was being acknowledged. Feminist literature is both nonfiction and fiction that supports women by defending political, economic and social rights for women. Many works of feminist literature depict strong willed women who

When her family moves to Africa she sacrifices her ability to be happy. She has to work all day making sure her family is provided for and that everyone is satisfied. She does not have the time to sit down and relax she always has something requiring her attention or help. “Yet, for all her slaving over a hot stove, Father hardly notices she’d won over the crowd.”(49) Orleanna has just prepared and cooked fried chicken for the entire village and Nathan does not even thank her or seen all the hard work she does to make his life easier. Although Orleanna sacrifices her happiness she is making her family happy by making life for them better. This shows that she values selflessness. She is willing to give up her happiness to see others happy. This is very important because without her selflessness there would have been a very different outcome of the book that would have been very hard on the rest of the family. Orleanna’s willingness to serve is what makes the journey in Africa

The Poisonwood Bible, written by Barbara Kingsolver, details the experiences of a missionary family in the Congo, narrated by the Price women. Multiple questions are introduced over the course of the novel, some being answered and others not so much. One important theme in the novel is the influence of surroundings on the characters, specifically Leah Price. Leah Price arguably went through the most change and development as a result of her surroundings and environment. Her moral, psychological change is noted throughout the entire novel with subtle inclusions of doubt in her narrations and finally outright outrage and disgust. She develops in many aspects, with the most important being the changing views of her father, Christianity, and