Character Analysis : The Poisonwood Bible

People face difficult and life altering challenges every day. Some of the bad times are more complex and affect more people than other types can. A challenge can start out as a family trying to help the less fortunate, but then take a turn for the worse. Even if it wasn't a specific person’s fault, he or she still feels guilty. In The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, the author uses symbolism and allusions to prove the theme everyone has and deals with guilt differently.

In the book The Body in the Woods by April Henry there is a contrast/contradiction moment where Ruby’s parents don’t allow her to go on the SAR search. The book states that, “Ruby had an excruciating awareness of her own strangeness. No matter how hard she tried, she found it impossible to fit in. Being friends with Alexis had helped.” This shows that Ruby normally doesn’t fit in, but when she joined SAR the only girls were Alexis and her, so she felt she fit in a little bit when she had a friend. Another piece of evidence states that, “ ‘You’ll go to school tomorrow, not the sheriff’s office. And you’ll contact the SAR and tell them you’re going to have to withdraw from the group... Anger made Ruby rigid, locked her rebuttal in her throat.”

“Being different isn’t a bad thing. It just means you're brave enough to be yourself ” (Luna Lovegood). The PoisonWood Bible introduces a character by the name of Adah Price. This character symbolizes difference, bravery and passion. Barbara Kingsolver uses these characteristics to develop the character.

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.

“Where was I, the girl or woman called Orleanna, as we traveled those roads and crossed the lines again and again? Swallowed by Nathan’s mission, body and soul” (Kingsolver 198), Orleanna Price reflects, looking back on her marriage to an emotionally abusive, religious zealot. Her entire being and life, as well as her children’s lives, are swallowed by the power of his barbed words and extreme beliefs. Over the course of The Poisonwood Bible, Orleanna struggles to free herself and her daughters from the power of her rage-filled and fanatical husband, and she is finally able to do so after she experiences the loss of her daughter. “I married a man who could never love me…

Alexis’s mother is mentally ill. No one knew until she told Bran. (Bran is one of her friends.) One day her mom and her got into an argument about people watching her. She was off her meds at the time and when She stormed out of the house she didn't take anything, not even her phone or jacket, and she didn't come back home for days at a time. Alexis never gave up looking for her mom. she looked everyday, asked people if they had seen her. She was very persistent.

Throughout The Poisonwood Bible, various characters gave up valued possessions, including materialistic items such as a mirror or significant losses such as ones life. Adah, a disadvantaged yet brilliant character gave up on her own remarkable self for the belief her family would be better off without her. In The Poisonwood Bible by Barbra Kingsolver, Adah sacrificed her own life in hopes of providing a better one for her family, thus highlighting how little she values her self and how highly she values others.

There was never a need for love, just his acceptance that she was his best offspring. In the middle of the rainy season, the family’s unwanted parrot yells out a curse word, causing the father to blame the children. Yet, Leah is not focused on saving her family, but rather craves “...to be father’s favorite,” (66), leaving the rest of the family to fend for themselves. Leah only sees her family as competition to her father’s affection, manifesting her desire to be loved in one person. At this moment, Leah is never truly happy. However, as their time in the Congo is extended for, at the time being, indefinitely, her value of Nathan falters with the lack of trust in his ideas. She gains this need to think on her own, to find her true self. Leah goes so far as to tell Anatole once, “‘I love you,’” (311), and even goes as far to have four children with him, named “Pascal, Patrice, Martin-Lothaire, and Nataniel,” (497). While it was never a shock to the reader that Anatole and Leah would marry, this dramatic irony was the clever method Kingsolver used to foreshadow the mental change that would take place in Leah. In fact, by giving up the worst part of her childhood family, Leah found the inner need to start her own family. Only by throwing away the familiarity and security of Nathan was Leah able to realize that she was never meant to be an exact copy of her

The novel The Poisonwood Bible begins with a narrative directive that grasps the reader’s attention. It suggests everything that is about to occur can only be witnessed by the people of Africa. Portraying a hint that something is going to happen to their family that leads them to ruins. I believe the “you” Orleanna is speaking to is the daughter that she lost in Congo as she introduces herself as “Southern Baptist by marriage, mother of children living and dead” (Kingsolver 7). This reveals the biggest disaster that occured during their time in Congo. Orleanna speaks from a time in the future to further enhance the feeling of guilt. She feels that she helped her husband accomplish his ungodly actions while failing to properly take care of her children. Kingsolver uses traits to differentiate the voices of each sister, which allows the reader to single handedly pick them out in a crowd if needed. Ruth May is exhibited as a child by the manipulation of grammar to make her sound more childlike. Kingsolver uses high sophistication to develop Adah’s voice making her one of the most intelligent of the four sisters which is ironic considering her decision to remain silent. Leah is blunt and straightforward reflecting her true nature. Lasly Rachel reflects her snobbish and conceited attitude through her short sentences. Adah Price’s voice is the most compelling to me for her large span of vocabulary and simply her injury. Reading her chapters are the most interesting based off of

Leah, the tomboy of the family, opposes her father's mission and finds out the true man he really is; this changes her opinion towards religion. Leah puts forth tremendous effort to be accepted by her father, however then realizes that her father is an "ugly man." She sees that her father's "blue eyes with their left sided squint..had a vacant look. His large reddish ears repelled me. My father was a simple, ugly man." When Leah was younger she practiced religion based on her father's perspective, however after making the realization of her father's true colors, she chooses to practice her religion. Leah follows the path of the

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.

She was born into this expectation, and she faithfully filled the honor as she looked up to her father. This fulfillment of her destiny of respecting and looking up to her father made the transition to the Congo, especially as he attempted to cultivate the Congo land with plants from Georgia. This pattern of trailing her father established happiness and stability for Leah as she made the transition to the foreign land that juxtaposed the safety of Bethlehem. She implored to be loved by her father, and this desire led her to conduct several actions, such as actively pursue Jesus in order to please her father. This changed when Leah discovered that although she adored her father and followed his every footstep in hopes of showing him how much she loved him, he showed her no affection in any regards. In fact, when Leah wanted to participate as a hunter in the town hunt, Nathan’s belief that women are inferiority to men was revealed. He stated that Leah shouldn’t participate due to the fact that she is a woman, and this was the watershed moment in which she no longer looked up to him as a figure worthy of worship. Likewise, as she renounced him, she denounced and abandoned anything he associated himself with, including religion, signifying that she abandoned worshipping her father and God at the same time as she was removed from her fantasy of a reality she believed herself to be in. The opportunity she had to support the family through her hunting was only present because the family lived in the Congo, but this opportunity would upend the destiny she was suppose to fulfill, and meanwhile nullify the father’s role of supplying for the family. This upset the balance of the family lifestyle they had grown accustomed to in Bethlehem, as Leah now had the ability to gather nurturance for the family while Nathan wasn’t even

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

Imagine you are a lawyer tasked with an impossible case, and everybody in your community is against you, but still there is a shred of hope you cling to. What might that be you ask? That to which you cling are your morals. In To Kill a Mockingbird Atticus Finch had been given the Tom Robinson case, where a black man was convicted of raping a white woman. As a single father of two children, he continues to reinforce his values throughout the trial and during his daunting task of raising his children. In To Kill A Mockingbird what Harper Lee suggests about the nature of morals is that you should try to stand up for what you believe in even if people oppose or reject your ideals. Even when faced with an insurmountable opposition you should stand up for your morals because in the end if your don't follow your beliefs you are just contributing to the problem. We should try to create a voice for what we believe in and impress that upon the next generation so they can continue to exercise their beliefs to make the world a better place.

Thus one of the lawful wives is a movement, sound, healthy, and peaceful, and to express her history Moses names her Leah or 'smooth'. The other is like a whetstone. Her name is Rachel, and on that whetstone the mind which loves effort and exercise sharpens its edge. Her name means 'vision of profanation', not because her way of seeing is profane, but on the contrary, because she judges the visible world of sense to be not holy but profane, compared with the pure and undefiled nature of the invisible world of the mind. (Congr. 25)