Summary Of The Poisonwood Bible

1. TITLE and AUTHOR The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver 2. HISTORICAL DATE THE BOOK WAS PUBLISHED 1998 3.

As children develop, their attitude and perspective on viewpoints changes. They become more mature and aware of their situation and surroundings. In The Poisonwood Bible, Baptist pastor Nathan Price, his wife Orleanna, and daughters Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May travels to the Congo on a mission trip. Throughout the story, the children are exposed to the cultural differences of the Congo and their home state of Georgia, but because of Nathan’s focus on his pastoral duties while in the Congo, he does not present himself as a father figure for the daughters. Because of this, the daughters are left to mature and figure out their surroundings on their own which gives the story its core.

In the Poisonwood Bible, Nathan's and all of his daughter’s names are a reference to characters found in the Bible. Throughout the book, Kingsolver uses biblical allusions in the text that ties in with the characters and events that take place. In the Bible, Rachel is the younger daughter of Laban's. Just like The Poisonwood Bible Rachel, biblical Rachel is referred to as being “lovely in form, and beautiful.” (NIV) Gen. 29:17 A man named Jacob was astounded by her beauty and fell in love with her, deciding to work seven years of labor so he could eventually marry her. However, on his wedding night he was tricked in to marrying Rachel's older sister, Leah. For a second time, Jacob decided to work another seven years and was finally able to

Leah Price from “The Poisonwood Bible,” is a teenager in 1950, and Tata Ndu is an old leader of Kilanga, a small village in the Congo. Leah’s family is on a Baptist mission to the Congo and Leah’s family resides in Tata Ndu’s village. Everything the Price family preaches is against the values of the people of KIlanga, namely Tata Ndu. Leah has progressive opinions about women, and Tata Ndu is set in his ways of demeaning women. Leah believes that women should have responsibility outside the home, but Tata Ndu says that women belong in the home. Leah believes that women should choose their husbands, but Tata Ndu is hard in believing that women are property to be bought by men. The conflicting opinions between Tata Ndu and Leah can be blamed

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

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 Poisonwood Bible, symbolism is widely explored to allude to and explore ideas in a nonliteral sense, Methuselah, a parrot left behind and adopted by the Price family, is an example of this. Throughout the novel, his role as a symbol of the Congo is examined.

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

35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy once said “We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth” (John). Though the art medium of writing, Barbara Kingsolver sheds light on the toxic reality of propaganda and its effects. She does this through the ostentatious character of Nathan Price, a religious zealot placed in Kilanga on a mission to spread Christianity. He represents a poisoned mind, corrupted by the beliefs of his government. In Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, Nathan Price’s despotic personality is the result of exposure to American propaganda and government prior to his years in the Congo.

The novels The Awakening, written by Kate Chopin, and The Poisonwood Bible, written by Barbara Kingsolver, both contain a female protagonist who strives to shine light on women’s society and demonstrates how women should be treated. These two women, Edna Pontellier in The Awakening and Orleanna Price in The Poisonwood Bible, live in two separate worlds but stumble upon the same ceiling. Although Edna is a wealthy homeowner living in New Orleans and Orleanna is a missionary from a poor and trying culture of Kilanga, they both seek the same independence. Their husbands treat them as property, which was the custom at the time. These women were growing tired of their old lives

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.

Many writers use setting to establish the theme of a literary work. In Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, the setting establishes three overall themes of the work as the contrasting regions of the Congo and the United States, arrogant dominance, and injustice. The Poisonwood Bible gives to readers all the gruesome details of the most recent history of the Congo, the truth about living through it, and the vast differences between two lifestyles: that of those who sat contently in their pleasant, undemanding lives during the late 20th century, and that of those who weren’t so privileged, but were also content in their own ways.

Women are not often given the chance to tell a story from their perspective, especially not in literature written in the 20th century, as most books were dominated by the over barring voices of a singular male narrator. The Poisonwood Bible utilizes five female narrators, setting it apart from other books as it creates five different voices all telling the same story, all teaching the same lessons. In The Poisonwood Bible, written by Barbara Kingsolver, Rachel's voice is used to demonstrate the difficulties in adapting to a culture that differs from one an individual is initially raised in.

People always greatly and negatively impact each other, though they believe it to be for the greater good. In the 1950’s European and American imperialism tore asunder what tranquility there was in the Congo. These countries may have not been aware of their influence at the time, but the outcome nonetheless was drastic. Cultural misunderstandings were the ultimate catalyst for the Congo’s destruction. In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Poisonwood Bible published in 1998 she exposes how cultural ignorance creates problems. With her chosen syntax, point of view, and time gap of each narrator Kingsolver exposes how close mindedness creates unfulfilled results because individuals can not adapt to cultural changes.

Throughout many novels different characters are sent to a new place to explore and find new things in life. An excellent example would be how the characters in the novel Poisonwood Bible explore a new lifestyle in the Congo. While they are there they have to learn how to adapt to a new life, and they try and teach the Congolese people how to worship the God, Jesus Christ. Even though the Congolese people may believe in different Gods, the Price family, especially Nathan feels that it is their duty to teach them different ways. Thus the poem We Grow Accustomed To The Dark by Emily Dickinson, is similar because it is talking about how people become accustomed to a different lifestyle just like the Price family did in the Poisonwood Bible. In