The Poisonwood Bible By Barbara Kingsolver

Throughout my selected text, Johnson focuses on the church along with the subsequent androcentric image of God, and how it impacts woman around the world. She explains that throughout history, with the help of the church’s patriarchal nature and society’s values as a whole, woman have been seen “as a ‘defective male’…that must live in obedience to her [male counterpart,]…[ and who are often also referred to as the] ‘second sex’” (Johnson 92). This

Towards the end of ‘On the Equality of the Sexes’, Murray specifically invokes the story of Adam and Eve, a story used for centuries to depict women as the sinners, to turn the argument against itself and argue that Adam, or the men, are the real sinners in the Bible, as Adam knowingly breaks the rules while Eve was innocently deceived by the serpent. “Adam could not plead the same deception,” says Murray, “nor ought we to admire his superiour strength, or wonder at his sagacity”, implying that people overestimate the skills of men while dismissing the intellect of women as commonplace. The bigger takeaway from Murray’s invocation of Adam and Eve is that it shows the audience that she is trying to make her argument more relatable by putting gender equality in the framework of the Bible, a piece of work that was not only a religious text, but a way of life for most people in Murray’s time. By analyzing the Bible through a feminist lens and swapping the roles of Adam and Eve, Murray saved women’s reputation as the repenting sinners, but in mentioning the Bible to justify her point, Murray ultimately retreats back to the practice of relying on others’ words to make her ideas worthy of public consumption.

Anne Roiphe’s “Confessions of a Female Chauvinist Sow” first appeared in the magazine New York in 1972. In this essay Roiphe aims to convince her readers that women must put faith in the idea that they are equal to men, not superior. “Women who want equality must be prepared to give it and believe in it . . . .” Personal anecdotes, contrast, and comparison are techniques Roiphe skillfully uses to create a strong, convincing essay.

Imperialism has been a strong and long lasting force, oppressing societies for generations on end. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, demonstrates how the Congo is continuously affected by this concept and ideology. Throughout this story, Kingsolver manipulates each family member and individual within the book, to better show Western and European ideas and attitudes, to convey the large amount of hypocrisy, in foreigner’s actions.

Feminism: the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social and economic equality to men. Rachel Price, the oldest child of the Price family, is accustomed to taking power and does not let a soul stand in her way of what she wants. Rachel takes on an inept independence since she is the oldest child. When arriving to the Congo, her sense of feminism is portrayed through her actions. Rachel even states, “Congolese men didn’t treat their own wives and daughters as if they were very sensible or important. Though as far as I could see the wives and daughters did just about all the work” (Kingsolver 222). Throughout The Poisonwood Bible, written by Barbara Kingsolver, Rachel establishes her independence from escaping the sexist wrath of her father, knowing how to manipulate the right men, and owning her own hotel.

Every little girl naturally desires to be daddy’s favorite, mimicking his every move, no matter the price. But what happens when she realizes that being daddy’s little girl may cost her life as she knows it? Imagine candidly abandoning your luxurious life in the United States only to relocate in the least modernized country known to man. In the novel titled The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, the Belgian Congo brings drastic change upon a person. There are many characters that undergo this process of change, which ultimately portrays to the reader the injustice of the world in its treatment toward the Congo. However, Leah Price consistently undergoes the most change from the beginning of the novel until the end. Throughout the novel

As once stated by Abraham Lincoln, “nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” In Barbara Kingsolver’s, The Poisonwood Bible, the static character, Nathan Price, is constantly attempting to exert power over other individuals, under the justification of his “beliefs.” Primarily, he believes that, since he is a Southern-Baptist, male, white preacher, he is dominant over both women and African-Americans. His desire for power leads to immense stubbornness on his behalf and immense animosity aimed at him by the women in his family and the African-Americans of the Belgian Congos. Throughout the course of Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, The Poisonwood Bible, Nathan Price’s stubborn and hypocritical attitude is demonstrated, as he incessantly desires to gain power over women and African-Americans, while validating his own

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

Whenever someone goes to a new place, they have to adapt to their surroundings and often times it causes changes in their behaviors. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is a novel about a pastor who takes his family to the Belgian Congo on a mission to spread his Christian beliefs to the Congolese. The mother and four daughters taken to the Congo were all affected by the Congo environment, which in turn lead to changes in their psychological and moral traits. The character that is affected the most by her new environment is Leah Price. She is affected by the Congolese culture and how they do things differently from Americans. Kingsolver portrays these changes in the character to show how after one has a life-changing experience, it may

The Poisonwood Bible is a novel that near-perfectly encapsulates themes of religion, difference of cultures, language barriers, political allegories, and social justice. These concepts create a novel that holds many layers beneath its words, causing endless interpretations of these layers. Barbara Kingsolver, the author of this well-crafted story, uses these themes to create the character of Adah Price, and her obsession with one thing: balance. Adah strives to achieve balance: a state of equality with her psychological, physical, and familial state, to which she successfully achieves by accepting the positives and negatives of the current state of each.

In the novel The Poisonwood Bible, written by Barbara Kingsolver, the reader is introduced to the Price family, Baptist missionaries who are attempting to “Christianize” the country of Congo, more specifically the village of Kilanga. As the story progresses, the family realizes that they are not changing the Congo, instead they themselves are transforming. The development of the characters within the novel is due to the instrument of cruelty. Although distasteful to regard it as such, cruelty motivates the development and choices of each party, whether politically, culturally, or socially. Rendering itself as a main theme throughout the book, different aspect of cruelty are illustrated through the interactions of the Price family, internally

for herself and safety of her daughters. In 1959, a baptist minister, Nathan Price drags his wife

It is safe to say that in our world today, countries do not go to this extent of taking their citizens’ rights to equality and freedoms away from them, but there are still countries at risk of inequality due to their governments’ policies and religious beliefs. In this story, not only did their leaders’ policies catch my eye, but also the gender roles within the movie. Unlike the society in which we live today where males and females are generally equal, this story depicts a male dominated world. Thankfully, Suzanne Collins, the writer of the story, thought otherwise.

The three categories of analysis that figure prominently in womanist biblical hermeneutics are race, gender, and class. Canon, Douglas, Shanell Smith, Martin, and Williams all emphasize race, gender, and class as interlocking and intersecting oppressive forces. Weems presupposes all structures of domination as related and dependent upon other institutionalized forms of domination. Shanell Smith expands these categories by offering a critique against linguistics, metaphors, symbolism, places, language, and empire. Furthermore, Shanell Smith and Masenya analyze the role of colonialism in Black women’s oppression and marginalization. Important to note, Masenya prefers the term kyriarchy, a term she borrows from white feminist Elizabeth Schüssler

The Bible is controversial on the matter of gender equality. There are numerous contradictions about the status of women in Christian society. Historically, the most prominent interpretation has been rather negative toward women. The Christian Church, with principally male authority, emphasizes the idea that women are inferior to man. They focus on Eve’s sin leading to a punishment that “her husband will have authority over her.” (Drury, 34)