Characters In The Poisonwood Bible

The Price Family is very religious and has a strong belief in God. Therefore, it only makes sense to have allusions throughout the story. Allusions bring the theme across because it helps the readers to see what happens when someone is guilty. For instance, if the girls do something they are not supposed to do the father, Nathan, would tell the girls “‘you have The Verse’” (Kingsolver 59). The Verse is a punishment to make them feel guilty for something wrong they

While reading The Poisonwood Bible by Kingsolver we understand the biblical influence in the Prices family and the overall book, however upon closer examination one finds many biblical allusions. Yet, rather than simply portraying the story and message in an attempt to convey it to the world, it seems as if Kingsolver desires that those who analyze her seemingly complex book through these allusions will understand her characters on a deeper level and experience what they’re going through personally. As read in How to Read Literature Like a Professor’s sixth chapter “... Or The Bible”; biblical allusions are meant to provide in-depth analysis of a story or character. The reason these biblical references are used, according to Thomas C. Foster

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.

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.

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.

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

People in some societies have faced situations that changed them in unique ways. The Poisonwood Bible written by Barbara Kingsolver represents how people are affected by horrific events and different cultures. This is caused by the missionary father; Nathan having led his family to spread their own beliefs in the Congo. In return, each Price woman is influenced in unique ways, according to their own perspectives. Unique ways is included in how transformations were due to the effects of losing someone or something. Ruth May’s death as well as individual experiences in the Congo, act as the catalysts for change in each of the Price woman, transforming their “core selves”

This novel is based on storytelling. Each girl has their own point of view of what life is like in the Congo. For, example, it was absolutely terrible for Rachel. She never wanted to be there from the start. When they first arrived in the Congo, no one wanted to be there. Certain girls changed their minds. Ruth May, for example, conformed to the Congo culture. She even made friends along the way, by playing games like “Mother May I” with the children of the Congo. Leah did not really conform to the culture. She wanted to hunt with the guys, but she still was a part of their culture. She fought for women’s rights in the Congo. Leah

“ 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.”

Religion, like many things, is taught and learned, passed through the generations, written in many forms and spoken in many languages all around the world, yet how one perceives and uses it, gives religion a further meaning. For many years now in places as Africa where Kingsolver places the novel, religion isn’t taken as seriously, as it is idealized in the western world, it is in different forms than what westerners are used too, but unwillingly, individuals are forced into the westerns way of teaching, compelling them to believe it can fix all their problems. In The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver criticizes the way religion affects an individual’s arrogance, political stance, and guilt, due to a belief that religion can fix

In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, Poisonwood Bible, she used the transition between narrators which shed light on the perspective of each member of the Price family. The Price family ventures from Georgia to the Congo led by their father, a Baptist Minister. Throughout their journey each narrator dramatically changes. The families influence on the Congo is parallel to western influence in the Congo.

Nathan Price enforces his male dominance over the women of his family with his religious

In Thomas Foster’s book, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, it is written that there are five aspects of a quest: “the quester; a place to go; a stated reason to go there; challenges and trials en route; a real reason to go there” (Foster 3). In the book The Poisonwood Bible, the Price family were the questers going to the Congo to bring Christianity to the villagers. During their stay at the Congo, they faced hate, disease, violence, and even the death of Ruth May. Although the whole family was attempting to bring Christianity to the villagers, Nathan Price’s real goal was to baptize all the villagers.

The novel centers around the Price family, an idyllic nuclear unit consisting of four daughters, a mother, and the head of the family, Reverend Nathan Price, who has decided to embark on a 12-month Southern Baptist mission (despite the warnings of the mission league and those that live there) to a remote village in the Congo, to show the heathens there the wonders of Jesus Christ. As told through the perspectives of his loyal female subjects, Nathan Price does his best to assert his moral Christian ideals (which include the belief that college ruins a perfectly good woman (Kingsolver 56) and the damnation of all non-baptised children (Kingsolver 171)) on the village of Kilanga, with no room for adaptation or understanding. The day the family arrives at the village, and are greeted with a welcoming celebration including food, song, and dance, Price brings it to a standstill and lectures the bare-breasted women about the sins of nakedness (Kingsolver 27). When he attempts to make a garden and grow American crops, he ignores the local's warning to form hills for drainage, and his seeds are all flooded out after the first rain (Kingsolver 63). Over and over, he preaches to the villagers about baptism, getting

The focal point of this novel is on a character named Fanny Price, who is conflicted from two different societies. At the beginning of the story, Fanny heads off to live with the Bertrams family. As she is living with the Bertrams, she encounters another family who has different perspectives on life and morals