Leah's Exile In The Poisonwood Bible

who he is, he served justice!” (pg. 450-451). Orleanna begins to break free from the Congo and

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

The rule of King Leopold II instilled disturbing methods of ruling. He enslaved the people of The democratic republic of Congo (Congolese) to gather him resources that would only benefit him. He was willing to do whatever it took to gain resources, even if it meant enslaving the people. “ King Leopold II nearly enslaved many of the Congolese people in order to gain wealth, and to bring power” (Citation) imperialism had a negative impact on the country, it had a long lasting impacts on the country because he depleted them of their resources which means they don't have much to export as a country now. King Leopold II used the people as slaves to gather their resources due to the danger of the work, which resulted in many casualties and injuries. He wanted to rule the country as he wanted rather than what was right for the people. He lied to the Belgian government in order to gain power of the country, by saying that his

For much of her childhood, Leah seemed to mimic Nathan’s every action and choice, and for nearly the entire first half of the book she continues to act in this manner. Even when first arriving at their home in the Congo, rather than doing what Leah loves to do, such as discover her surroundings, she constantly “walked behind him...” (38), in the garden, planting in the ways he assumes are correct. Even at the advice of Mama Tataba to form graves, Leah refuses to form her own opinion on the matter, helping her father continue the flat plain of a garden. Through this exchange of internal and external dialogue, Kingsolver emphasizes the fact that Leah needs her father to guide her, that Leah needs Nathan to love her. With his presence, Leah stays in the mindset that Nathan must decide her life for her. She lacks her later need of free will, and ultimately it foreshadows her desire to break free. In fact, once Leah decides to think for herself, she begins to rebel against her father’s wishes, going so far as to hunt in the front of the tribe with the men, and even refused to vote for Jesus, praying that “...this red-faced man shaking with rage would never lay a hand on [her] again,” (333). Again, this internal dialogue takes place, written in such a harsh tone to build up this idea that Leah’s free will allows her to find herself. Leah begins to rejoice in the fact that she can decide

In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, The Poisonwood Bible, the reader is introduced to Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, through the voices of the fictional Price women. Unlike the Price family, Patrice Lumumba was a non-fictional character who was elected and served only 7 months as the Congo’s Prime Minister. His reign was brought short by his execution in 1961. Though his tenure may have been short and occurred more than 50 years ago, Patrice Lumumba remains to this very day, an important man in history.

Oreleanna lost a child and is burdened by the guilt, while she regains her freedom to use. The mother recognizes her loss having connection to her freedom; as “I lost my wings. Don’t ask me how I gained them back, the story is too unbearable” (201). Oreleanna is referring to the loss of her “wings” or her freedom because of her relationship with Nathan, but when her youngest dies she regains it back. Oreleanna refers to her regain as too unbearable, because she has lost too much with Ruth May’s death since she could not save her, and does not want her other children to die as well. The impact of Ruth Mays death has made Oreleanna hold on to her guilt, and makes her find some type of self-redemption. This self-redemption is with the civil rights movement using her freedom to give others voice because she did not have one as. Therefore by doing this she doing something Ruth May be proud of, and shows her ….. Overall Oreleanna has been transformed in her motherhood and her entire life after the Congo, due to Ruth May’s

It also talks about Patrice Lumumba getting assasinated. It also talks about the diseases the people in the Congo were going through. Some of these diseases are: malaria, and malnutrition. They had scarce food sources. They often die from both of these things.

Nathan Price’s real goal for going to the Congo was to baptize all the villagers in the area. This, however, was relentlessly being opposed by many villagers because of the incident where a crocodile ate a young girl in the same river Nathan was going to baptize the people in. Although opposed, Nathan remained unwavering in his goals. This causes many villagers to hate him and change their opinion of him, his family, and

In July of 1956, Lumumba was sentenced to two years imprisonment for embezzling $2,520 from the post office for the Association des Evolués. After the Association returned the money, Lumumba’s sentence was reduced to 12 months, which began his career as a prisoner, leaving and re-entering the prison system for the next five years. During his 1956-1957 imprisonment, Lumumba wrote Congo, My Congo, 200 pages to “make a contribution towards the search for a solution for the present and future problems of the Congo” (Lumumba 7). Because this book was not published until after Lumumba’s death, it did not have an impact on the independence movement, but the views Lumumba wrote about certainly did.

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.

Leopold never actually stepped foot in Congo, he had used explorers such as Stanley Mortan and other white men to establish the colony for him. To sneakily undergo his objectives without other countries noticing, he created organizations in which he could operate under. For instance, the International African Association to stop the outspread of slavery. Leopold additionally hosted conference meetings to speak on human rights. “If he was to seize anything in Africa, he could do so only if he convinced everyone that his interest was purely altruistic”. (46) King Leopold succeeded at convincing every one of his goodwill, that he was supported financially from the Belgian government in introducing free trade and religion in the Congo.

As time goes on in the Congo, their relationship went broken. This is because Leah is benevolent, so over time she views the Congo more like Adah with Anatole’s help. Anatole is the English-speaking schoolteacher and later becomes Leah’s husband. Once Leah had to be the man of the household and took practice on how to hunt, that’s when her real potential started to show. Leah’s change was significant showed in Book three starting with Anatole responds, “Not you, Béene” (225). As their conversation goes on in this section, the conversations actually highlight some of the theme of the novel such as culture guilt of America, justices of the government, and the fairness of children getting infected with diseases. Through the conversation with

This is her hardest time. She is so lonely, since she is no longer living with Anatole’s Aunt Elizabet, and her boys are sad. She cannot justify herself in Africa with Anatole gone, and she feels guilty that it was her that helped him get caught. He had to take care of her, and had to get a passport, and the passport is how they caught him. She is worried he is regretting starting a life with her.

Patrice Lumumba, the first legally elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was assassinated (...) on 17 January, 1961. This heinous crime was a culmination of two inter-related assassination plots by American and Belgian governments, which used Congolese accomplices

Congo gained its independence from Belgium in 1960; however, it still remained turbulent and dangerous. On the one hand, Patrice Lumumba, the leader of the independence movement and anti-imperialist tried to restore order and resisted foreign intervene into Congo’s natural resource, but was mistakenly portrayed as a communist and assassinated in 1961. On the other hand, a coup led by Joseph Mobutu, which was supported by the United States quickly grasp the control over the country and renamed it Zaire. A large amount of money loans were given to Mobutu and his government for aid from the United States and the International Monetary Fund, but the corruption in his government lead to tremendous loss of the money that is supposed to put into constructing