In the Poisonwood Bible, Nathan's and all of his daughter’s names are a reference to characters found in the Bible. Throughout the book, Kingsolver uses biblical allusions in the text that ties in with the characters and events that take place. In the Bible, Rachel is the younger daughter of Laban's. Just like The Poisonwood Bible Rachel, biblical Rachel is referred to as being “lovely in form, and beautiful.” (NIV) Gen. 29:17 A man named Jacob was astounded by her beauty and fell in love with her, deciding to work seven years of labor so he could eventually marry her. However, on his wedding night he was tricked in to marrying Rachel's older sister, Leah. For a second time, Jacob decided to work another seven years and was finally able to
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
In The Poisonwood Bible, one of the most significant allusions refers to the Curse of Ham story in the Bible. Essentially, the prophet Noah became intoxicated and when one of his sons, Ham, found him, began laughing as he called his brothers, Shem and Japheth to cover up their father so they would not have to see his nakedness. Surprisingly, when Noah woke up, he was extremely angry when he found out that Ham has mocked his nudity, so he cursed Ham’s youngest son Caanan.
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.
There is strong juxtaposition in The Poisonwood Bible when it comes to American versus Congolese culture. While Mama Mwanza is viewed as equal in the Congo for her disability, Adah is considered an outcast in American society because of her hemiplegia. Ruth May talks about Mama Mwanza’s disability as if it is something strange, yet she reveals that the people living in their village do not look at Mama Mwanza as any different from them. She says that “Why, they just don’t let on, like she was a regular person. Nobody bats their eye when she scoots by on her hands and goes on down to her field or the river to wash clothes with the other ladies that work down there every day.” The phrasing of this implies that the Price family looks at Mama Mwanza
In The Poisonwood Bible, written by Barbara Kingsolver, the aspect of biblical allusion is clearly present throughout the majority of the novel. For example, one of the most conspicuous allusions to the Bible is the way that Kingsolver has purposely named some of the main characters in her book after different people and images in the Bible. Kingsolver uses this biblical allusion to develop important themes, events, and characters in her novel. Kingsolver makes references to the Bible by tying in and creating similarities between important events and themes in the Bible and important events and themes in her novel.
Identifying the Theme of Cultural Arrogance in The Poisonwood Bible In the novel, The Poisonwood Bible, written by Barbara Kingsolver, Kingsolver uses the contextual complexities of the family members to portray the themes in this book. This book is all about the clash of cultures. Kingsolver describes the Price family’s personal experiences of going to the Congo for missionary work during 1959, when there were political upheavals in the Republic of Congo. Orleanna and her four daughters are thrown in the fire and forced to cope with the harsh conditions of the Congo.
The way that you develop and discover yourself and your personal attributes is largely impacted by the environment you grow up in, as shown in The Poisonwood Bible. Each member of the Price family reacts differently to their being thrown into a completely new location, culture, and livelihood; the maturation path of each child varies drastically from the others, and their exposure to the Congo impacts each of them in a different way, which we observe through each character’s language and behavior in the book. The stylistic formatting, tone, and figurative language used in Leah Price’s narratives in The Poisonwood Bible change as she grows, and the maturation of her physical structure and overall mentality correlate to her development in language throughout the story. Leah enters the Congo as a religious, rule-following adolescent from the suburbs of Bethlehem, Georgia, but as time passes and she becomes accustomed to the land, Leah begins to develop in ways that were once unforeseen by her and her family.
Everything is not always what it seems. The things one sees in everyday life may have a deeper meaning to each individual person. A toy may have a deeper meaning for a child, a song probably means something deep to a teenagers, and a certain thing in a book may mean something entirely different to a writer. In Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, there are many symbols from trees to birds to gardens. The symbol of the poisonwood tree represents Nathan Price’s ignorance, pride, and cruelty.
The reason why Nathan and Leah have this conflict is because of Nathan’s narrow-mindedness and lack of self awareness. The main purpose of The Poisonwood Bible is to show how different people deal with guilt. Nathan however has no guilt, and this is the source of many conflicts with Leah. Nathan has no self-awareness. When he does something he never thinks of his family, he only thinks
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
Another way to deal with past regrets that is brought to light is the idea of repressing that memory in the first place. Unlike her sisters, Rachel Price is the only one who ignores her guilt. After Ruth May’s death and their departure from Nathan, Rachel rarely ever brings these major events up again. Instead she talks about her new life, speaking about her newest boy toy and complaining about the African’s culture. The night of Ruth May’s death, since Rachel is
In a world full of blame and lack of accountability, an individual’s role in injustice needs to be questioned. In the early 1960’s, after many years under Belgian rule, the Congolese people formed an uprising and gained independance. However, the Congo was ill prepared for the organization that independence demanded. The Soviet Union offered aid to the Prime Minister of the Congo. Since this was during the Cold War, the United States retaliated and supported a coup led by Colonel Joseph Mobutu. Mobutu ruled with an iron fist, resulting in pain and oppression of the Congolese. Looking back on history, it is easy to see who was at fault. But at the time, it was not easy to identify blame, especially for the Americans. Barbara Kingsolver wrote about the Congo’s trials much later in 1991. She used a narration from baptist missionary family to symbolize the different kinds of guilt Americans share. In Anne M. Austenfield’s narrative journal, she described Kingsolver’s ability to use, "several character-focalizers whose limited perspectives project highly subjective views of history" (Austenfeld). This technique allowed for Kingsolver to not only produce a more reliable account of what occurred, but to depict her desired theme and message. Kingsolver, in her novel The Poisonwood Bible, uses a political allegory to explore the different notions of guilt through the limited perspectives of her characters.
Opinions, self-assurance, and knowledge – these aspects of one’s character constantly develop throughout one’s lifetime. In some cases, opinions shift from one end of the spectrum to the opposite end of the spectrum, while the knowledge gained from the world guides one to become more self-assured. In The Poisonwood Bible, Leah, the daughter of a passionate preacher, gains several unfamiliar experiences after moving to Congo such as the peoples’ way of life and insight on what the Africans think about her family. Throughout The Poisonwood Bible, Kingsolver thoughtfully uses textual features such as figurative language, syntax, and tone to show how Leah’s character gradually progresses from a blinded worshiper who wants nothing more than to follow in her father’s footsteps to an individualistic young woman who strives to live a life without her father’s influence. To begin the novel, Kingsolver establishes Leah’s beliefs by utilizing different forms of figurative language.
This further impacted the children Rachel and Leah, being the oldest daughters in the family. Rachel was a daughter that loved her father and she at first felt that he was the best person in the world. She would always follow him around and be his little princess, that was until she started to see the bad things that he started doing in the dark, mysterious place they were living in. She started to see how arrogant and defensive he became throughout the community and how he threw hissy fits. She realized that enough was enough and she needed to grow accustomed to this new place by herself, just like the narrator did in the poem. This is because she knew that her dad was just going insane and he wanted too much power. She now felt bad for her mom and what he had done to her, and wanted to side with her mom to get out of the community that they were in because they had enough of it. Another thing that happened in the Congo while she was there was something absurd and scarring to say the least. Her sister had started to hunt with the men for meat and Rachel saw what they did when they killed the poor animals lives. Rachel was so startled and appalled that she had to become a vegetarian for a short time while they were there. This just shows that she had to adapt to a new lifestyle because she could not think of eating a poor animal that had an innocent life, but her sister Leach could have cared
words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times; and he maketh me to lie down in