Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible

A noticeable pattern in The Poisonwood Bible would be plain old ignorance from the Americans regarding the African people. A huge part of the story is showing how ignorant the west is of the culture in Africa. Nathan Price is constantly showing this off by wanting to baptize children in a river filled to the brim with crocodiles and other awful, dangerous things. Even once this is explained to him he still continues to push the issue because he feels he is right even when it is blatantly obvious he is not. Also he says, “Tata Jesus is bängala!”(Kingsolver 276) Thus constantly pronouncing “bängala” incorrectly; instead of calling Jesus “dearly beloved” he ends up calling him a dangerous tree making any arguments about his religion sound irrelevant

In the novel, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, Kingsolver uses different literary techniques to develop the harsh setting and have the characters look weak and overwhelmed. The literary techniques used to define the characters and the setting are violent imagery and violent juxtaposition.

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.

Writers use a variety of manipulative stylistics and structural elements to further emphasize the language within their pieces of literature. Whether the purpose is to frame the basis for an autobiography, essay, fictional, mythical or nonfictional tale, they always strive to integrate certain textual features to add distinction to their work. In Barbara Kingsolver’s, The Poisonwood Bible, she composes the novel with the intention of creating a multi-voice layout with distinctive narrative voices and perceptions. About the tragic undoings and miraculous restoration of a missionary family moved to a village in the Belgian Congo, the setup of the novel is unquestionably not one sided. The narrative voices are broken down between the main characters, allowing for each of them to tell their stories.

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.

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

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.

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.

Barbara Kingsolver is the author of many well-written pieces of literature including The Poisonwood Bible. This novel explores the beauty and hardships that exist in the Belgian Congo in 1959. Told by the wife and four daughters of a fierce Baptist, Nathan Price, Kingsolver clearly captures the realities this family and mission went through during their move to the Congo. The four daughters were raised in Atlanta Georgia in the 1950’s therefore entering the Congo with preconceived racial beliefs, and a very different way of life than they would soon experience. Throughout The Poisonwood Bible Kingsolver explores the importance and impact of faith, and a religion based on your own private beliefs.

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.

The European conquest in Africa reinforced the notion of seizing seemingly primitive nations occupied by natives whose culture and lifestyle must be rationalized and modified to fit the standards of a modern country. Following the post-World War II era came the opportunity for the world's most powerful nations to make a significant impact on a war-torn world. The two super-power nations of the time, the United States and the Soviet Union, craved to influence vulnerable and poverty-ridden nations like Africa as these natives were easily to manipulate. A desire to spread and influence western ideology, specifically Christianity, to rural nations is depicted in Barbra Kingsolver's novel The Poisonwood Bible. Kingsolver portrays an American missionary Reverend Price and his family as they attempt to spread and make a significant impact on the people of the Belgian Congo, whom the Reverend describes as a place where he can "save needy souls". American intervention in the Congo highlights few of the many results of attempting to revive a nation ridden of post-colonial damage, including the fusion of two cultures, the abuse of political power and, international perception and relations.

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

The Poisonwood Bible is a novel that near-perfectly encapsulates themes of religion, difference of cultures, language barriers, political allegories, and social justice. These concepts create a novel that holds many layers beneath its words, causing endless interpretations of these layers. Barbara Kingsolver, the author of this well-crafted story, uses these themes to create the character of Adah Price, and her obsession with one thing: balance. Adah strives to achieve balance: a state of equality with her psychological, physical, and familial state, to which she successfully achieves by accepting the positives and negatives of the current state of each.

Orleanna Price is presented with the difficult task of moving her four daughters, Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May, and her husband, Nathan. However, this is not a typical move to another house within their city limits or even to another state. Orleanna has to move her family of six from southern Georgia to a less than rural village in the Congo. Her husband, Reverend Nathan Price, believes God wants him to travel to the Congo, bringing his family along with him, on a mission to share the teachings of Jesus Christ. Since their marriage, her husband has slowly disregarded Orleanna as a significant other. Due to this, when Orleanna did not show enthusiasm or trust in this adventure, Nathan was not hesitant to disregard her feelings. Losing this battle, Orleanna had to meticulously choose what to pack for their excursion. Once their luggage bags reached the weight limit for the airline, Nathan refused to pay any more than what the airline allotted. Therefore, Orleanna had to pack their remaining things within the clothes of her and her daughters, as Nathan 's only thing he had to take was the message of Jesus, which was confined within his brain. After two uncomfortable airplane rides, the Prices finally landed in Kilanga, Congo. They were presented their church and their home after being speculated by the numerous women, men, and children of the village. These villagers, many of

One of the many advantages of written language is the ability to pass down important knowledge to younger generations for as long as the text exists. Some of these writings were meant to pass along examples of how to live one’s life and attempt to answer the unanswerable through moral or character instruction. Fiction literature, however, is superior at delivering these lessons because fiction allows for far more creative freedom for the author to craft their lesson. By its very nature as moral guidance, this type of writing often appears within a religious context.