Examples Of Allusions In The Poisonwood Bible

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

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.

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.

The Lord of the Flies says “Fancy thinking the beast is something that you could kill,” and he calls Simon a “silly boy” (Golding 143). The beast was trying to tell him that the boys were the actual beast and it was inside of them, as sin is in all of us from the fall of man. Matthew 12:24 says “But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.” The world Beelzebub is another name used to address the devil, and literally translates to “Lord of the Flies”, which is the name that Golding uses to refer to the pigs head in the book. The Pig also tempts Simon in the forest as Satan did Jesus in the New Testament ( Matthew 4:1-11). The pigs meat represents the fruit of knowledge from the book of Genesis. The meat is all the boys could think about, until they ate it and it opened the door to savagery and sin. As Eve ate the forbidden fruit of knowledge and cursed the world with sin. Pork in the Old Testament was considered filthy and forbidden, and if you consumed it, you were considered unclean and sinful (Leviticus 11:7-8). Jack and his hunters ate the meat, and soon after became complete savages. Jack and his tribe worship the beast/pig, offering it fruit and sacrifices(Golding 137), as Revelations 13:4 says “People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and

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.

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.

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

America has been, and still is, known for its obsession with materialism and ignorance towards lifestyles not surrounded by grandeur. Success in America could be defined as a life full of incredible wealth and few worldly problems, whereas success in a third world country can be defined as simply living to have healthy children. Are Americans truly aware of the stark difference between their own lives and the lives of the majority of humanity? Probably not. In The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver uses the character of Rachel to represent, explore, and explain these American cultural issues. Rachel Price represents the voluntary ignorance, political issues, and materialism woven throughout the novel and America.

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

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.

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.

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.

Father-daughter relationships are commonly filled with unconditional love, but an adolescent's complete devotion can be abused by an unfit parent. In Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, the devout baptist minister Nathan Price traverses the luscious African country of the Congo along with his wife Orleanna and their four daughters: Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May. One of the Price girls, Leah, is introduced as having an indescribable adoration for her disparaging dad. However, as Leah matures into a young women, Nathan's racist, misogynistic, and all-around despicable acts turn what was once an affectionate worship for her father into an unaffected scorn.