The Poisonwood Bible By Barbara Kingsolver

The Poisonwood Bible is a novel written by Barbara Kingsolver that takes place in 1950’s New Orleans and the Congo of Africa. This story written in 1998 in reflection of imperialism, The Poisonwood Bible, is a political allegory. The Price family is the center of attention, each member having a specific role in the story as well as the political allegory about the imperialism and colonization of the Congo and other third world countries of the time. The mother Orleanna is an intellectual women for her time, the 50’s where women were supposed to be obedient to their husbands, and has a distinct voice. Barbara Kingsolver creates a specific voice for Orleanna Price to serve the purpose of being the advisory

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.

Barbara Kingsolver is the author of many well-written pieces of literature including The Poisonwood Bible. This novel explores the beauty and hardships that exist in the Belgian Congo in 1959. Told by the wife and four daughters of a fierce Baptist, Nathan Price, Kingsolver clearly captures the realities this family and mission went through during their move to the Congo. The four daughters were raised in Atlanta Georgia in the 1950’s therefore entering the Congo with preconceived racial beliefs, and a very different way of life than they would soon experience. Throughout The Poisonwood Bible Kingsolver explores the importance and impact of faith, and a religion based on your own private beliefs.

“ Imagine a ruin so strange it must never have happened First, picture the forest. I want you to be its conscience, the eyes in the trees.”

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.

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.

Kingsolver uses her literature to express her feelings through her characters, specifically Taylor Greer, who resembles Kingsolver at a young age. Both Kingsolver and Taylor have pride in being women and they want to ensure that women have the same rights as men do. They share these similar social views

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

Women haven’t always had the freedom that they have today. Women were supposed to live a certain life even though sometimes they didn’t want to. They had to tend to their husbands at all time, stay home and do housework while still taking care of their children or being pregnant. Women were abused physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Although women were perceived to act and present themselves in a certain way, some young women went against the cult of the true woman hood not only to be different, but to escape he physical, emotional, and psychological abuse that they will or have encountered. In novels, The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Path and Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid both young women have the similarity to rebel against the cult of true

The Posionwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, tells the story of the Price Family. Nathan Price, the father, makes the decision to move his family in the 1960’s from America to the Congo to be missionaries. Kingsolver’s novel centers on providing the female members a chance to speak for themselves and tell their own stories. Rachel, the oldest daughter is materialistic and egotistical. In The Posionwood Bible, Rachel Price manipulates diction, tone, and selection of detail to fashion her hackneyed teenager voice, which leads to her becoming a paragon of America’s ideology throughout the book.

In a world like this, the majority of it is unfair. Women usually live life going down either two different paths, the path of being successful or the path of trying to be successful. In the beginning of The Poisonwood Bible, Orleanna introduces to the readers in a third person’s point of view, “The daughters march behind her, each one tensed to fire off a woman’s heart on a different path to glory or damnation” (5). Orleanna, a mother who lives throughout the story of The Poisonwood Bible, acknowledges how women, in great numbers, are found walking down the path of trying to be successful. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver's masterpiece, involves the Price family of 6, who goes on a missionary trip to the Congo in the 1960’s.

The novel written by Barbara Kingsolver, Poisonwood Bible, serves to prove that the roles of women in the 1960s regardless of their background were imposed upon than the roles of men. These women did not have equal opportunity to excel throughout the Congo as they were to serve their husbands only. It was considered to be out of bound if a women tried to attain an education, as well as expressing themselves.

Women are also used by the novel to exhibit the emptiness of greed, lust, and desire. Throughout the book women are constantly raped and sold as sex slaves as if they were commodities. This emphasizes the ineffectiveness of human greed. This is an enlightened idea because there were enlightened women, such as Mary Wollstonecraft and Olympe de Gous, who were early feminist activists. They preached that women were equal to men in all aspects in works such as “Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female

“I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent,” (1 Tim 2:12). Throughout the course of history, it is obvious women were essential to and played a key role to the patriarchal society as the housewife. While reading The Bible, the patriarchal society is clearly evident in these times as shown in several cases such as Queen Vashti; however, the Virgin Mary, Elizabeth, and Mary Magdalene combat the ideals of the patriarchy. The Gospel of Luke offers a compelling account combatting the patriarchal society in the Christmas story showing that not all women were and should be succumbed to the standards of the housewife.

Fulfilling the image of a corrupt and sinful world, society devalues women and demeans their existences, oppressing them into a world of submissiveness and destruction. The patriarchy not only have detrimental effects on women, but the entire world as well. However, women have always exhibit strength and development despite the lack of opportunities, and they reveal the virtuousness of moral character. In the 19th century dark romantic novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne reveals the atrocities of the patriarchy and masculine hegemony in society and thereby perceive women as the current redeemer of humankind’s sin. He, thereby, urges individuals to deter from the idea of women solely carrying the burdens of humankind’s sin and to