Compare And Contrast The Poisonwood Bible

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.

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.

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

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 Poisonwood Bible and Taming of the Shrew are two works of literature that . The Poisonwood Bible, written by Barbara Kingsolver, is a story about the Price family’s journey deep into the heart of the Congo on a mission to save the unenlightened souls of Africa. Nathan Price, the Baptist minister responsible for moving his family, lives solely by his own rigid and simplistic moral code. Taming of the Shrew is one of William Shakespeare’s first comedies. Taming of the Shrew focuses on courtship and marriage during the Romantic Era. Petruchio, a greedy and boastful upperclassman, attempts to tame the aggressive and shrewish Katherine into an obedient wife. Nathan and Petruchio view the women around them as inferior. The two male characters feel the need to be the dominant role in their relationships with women. Nathan Price manipulates his family’s way of thinking and forces religion and restrictions upon his wife and daughters. Petruchio uses his money and societal power to dominate Katherine, forcing her to become his obedient wife. Although Nathan and Petruchio have different approaches to enforcing their dominance, both Nathan and Petruchio take advantage of the power they have over women and enforce society’s expectation of women.

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 novel The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver centered around a missionary family in the Congo. The patriarch of the family, Nathan Price tries to convert the villagers living in Kilanga while his family struggles with the culture shock of moving from Georgia to Africa. Kingsolver’s use of different narrators--cycling through the four daughters and the mother--made the story more nuanced and fully developed the characterization of the Price family. Nathan’s obsession and ultimate downfall was a highlight of the book, especially as it was seen from a variety of perspectives. The reader first discovers Nathan’s erratic behavior through the eyes of the second eldest daughter Adah who never had a good relationship with

The Awakening, written by Jane Eyre, and The Poisonwood Bible, written by Barbara Kingsolver, are both excellent works of classical literature that convey an important message to society. The Awakening depicts the life of Edna Pontellier, a 19th century housewife, and her daily struggles in society. In the novel, Edna strives to fit in with the affluent, Creole lifestyle of New Orleans and the Grand Isle and often questions her role as a wife and mother of two children. The Poisonwood Bible explores the adventures of the Price family, a Baptist missionary family from Georgia, and their journey to the Congo. Nathan, Orleanna, Leah, Adah, Rachel, and Ruth-May travel to Kilanga with the hope of converting the African natives to Christianity, but as the

In the novel The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, Nathan Price, the dominant male figure, is a closed-minded and egotistical individual who causes a rift between himself and his family, for whom he has little concern in comparison to his misguided hopes of saving “the tribes of Ham,” as well as his ultimate reason for his mission: spreading God to so-called sinners. Nathan not only physically alienates himself, his four daughters, and his wife from the comfort of their prideful Southern home by forcing them to accompany him on his year-long mission to save the Congo, but also emotionally alienates himself by personifying the stereotypical white misogynistic male of the 1960s, which ultimately leads to the spiritual alienation of his

The Poisonwood Bible is a novel written by Barbara Kingsolver. She introduces the novel with a woman named Orleanna Price as she is telling the story of her children and her survival in the Congo. Orleanna narrates the struggles her family endured while on their journey in the Congo. Following, each child has the opportunity to speak about their experiences and feelings. Throughout this book, many sociological aspects can be related back, such as the ideas of religion, and culture, along with their subcategories.

creates a lack of understanding between the social groups in the Congo and their own

In the novel, storytelling is essentially about the experience of the person who is telling it. A story will never be told the same way because people go through different emotions in their life. For example, Adah’s life during the novel changes the most. How would Adah have told stories in the Congo if she would have felt wanted? Would she have told things differently? These factors of life affect the way people tell stories. Stories are never one-hundred percent truthful, solely because of the fact that people have emotions. For instance, Rachel and Leah are both in the Congo at the same time, experiencing similar things, but when Rachel

When I was eight or nine years old, I decided I wanted to be a writer. By this age, I had already gone through the phases of wanting to be an artist, a cook, an astronaut and was extremely satisfied with my new choice of profession. After all, I loved to read so why not write? Reading was my true love: during second grade, I conquered all of Harry Potter over the course of two months. My mom’s rule was that I had to read the book before watching the movie, so I read and read. I would compete in, and win, all the school reading competitions as well as the summer library competitions. Writing, I decided, was the next natural step.