The Poisonwood Bible Essay

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

breaks free from Nathan. Even though Orleanna finds her freedom, she loses her faith. Orleanna

During the beginning of the Price family’s arrival at the Congo, the family settles in an unfamiliar land of Kilanga and Nathan is being portrayed as the physical representation of the American perspective on the African people by creating conflict. Since the family is from Georgia, the surroundings and the atmosphere of

No one shows the oppression, inflicted upon the Congo’s people in hope of spreading imperialism, better than the main characters in this story. Nathans only goal is to convert all of the native people’s beliefs to Christianity. By hoping to doing this, they will be able to grasp control and establish their dominance upon the village. This can be seen through Orleannas thoughts, “Call it oppression, complicity stupefaction, call it what you’d like, it doesn’t matter. Africa swallowed the conqueror’s music and sang a new song of her own” (Kingsolver 385). Kingsolver shows that individuals are always going to want and demand control, however the victims of this oppression will fight past it and won’t give in. Many people have come before the Price family, trying to do the same thing. However, the natives are smarter than to give into their new ideologies.

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.

Change is something that happens to everyone, and it can shape one’s future. Whether it be one personally adjusting their ethics, location, or habits, or someone who is close modifying themselves in a similar way, everyone experiences some change. This change occurs everywhere and throughout one’s daily life and it can create a lasting impact. In The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, there are many changes that the Price family experiences. At the start of the book this change relies on the influence of a change in location has on the family, but as the book progresses this change reflects more on the change of the values that each woman of the family faces. Throughout the novel, the idea that change can force one to adjust their

Be careful. Later on you'll have to decide the sympathy they deserve” (Kingsolver 5), this implies that incidents will happen to each of these girls, some of which will lead to their lives to be changed forever. However, these incidents that occur may be deserved based on the actions and decisions they choose, leading them on the path to either “glory” or “damnation”. “The mother’s comment –“watch how she leads them on, pale-eyed, deliberate” (Kingsolver 5), makes it sound as if Orleanna is not as innocent as she seems to say she is and that she may have played a bigger role in the downfall of their family. “I saw a family of weaver birds work together for months on a nest that became such a monstrous lump of sticks and progeny and nonsense that it brought their whole tree thundering down” (Kingsolver 8). I think this is symbolic of the Price family’s errors and mistakes in the Congo that eventually led to the collapse of their own family. The quotes, “On a more earthly plane men in locked rooms bargained for the Congo's treasure. But I was there. Right on the head of that pin” (Kingsolver 8) and “We aimed for no more than to have dominion over every creature that moved upon the earth. And so it came to pass that we stepped down there on a place we believed unformed, where only darkness moved on the face of the waters” (Kingsolver 10) allude to the disaster that happened in Africa when the Western countries tried to assert control over the continent, spiraling the local governments into chaos and civil wars. “Vines strangling their own kin in the everlasting wrestle” alludes to how Orleanna's husband, Nathan, made his own children suffer in the Congo due to his selfish ways of trying to force Baptism onto the

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

An instance being in the literary device of the foreshadowing of Ruth May’s death. Although Nathan Price believes he is going all he can to save the Congolese in God’s name his daughter dies. For someone doing such a good deed of enlightening those who don’t know of christianity he was punished. The foreshadowing presents itself in the Book Four chapter title name of Bel and the Serpent in which case Ruth May dies due to a snake. Nathan Price serves as an example of how being extremely faithful in his religion to which he has become blind poses danger to those around him.

Orleanna Price is presented with the difficult task of moving her four daughters, Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May, and her husband, Nathan. However, this is not a typical move to another house within their city limits or even to another state. Orleanna has to move her family of six from southern Georgia to a less than rural village in the Congo. Her husband, Reverend Nathan Price, believes God wants him to travel to the Congo, bringing his family along with him, on a mission to share the teachings of Jesus Christ. Since their marriage, her husband has slowly disregarded Orleanna as a significant other. Due to this, when Orleanna did not show enthusiasm or trust in this adventure, Nathan was not hesitant to disregard her feelings. Losing this battle, Orleanna had to meticulously choose what to pack for their excursion. Once their luggage bags reached the weight limit for the airline, Nathan refused to pay any more than what the airline allotted. Therefore, Orleanna had to pack their remaining things within the clothes of her and her daughters, as Nathan 's only thing he had to take was the message of Jesus, which was confined within his brain. After two uncomfortable airplane rides, the Prices finally landed in Kilanga, Congo. They were presented their church and their home after being speculated by the numerous women, men, and children of the village. These villagers, many of

Often in novels, characters are faced with justice of some sort. The same can be said for the characters of Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, The Poisonwood Bible. Overall, the best example of this complex character can be seen in the twin Price daughter, Leah. She is the character that stands out when it comes to the injustice that occurs in the Congo. After Ruth May dies, the Price women all journey to leave the Congo.

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.

Still, all this time in the Congo makes Orleanna realize that, although she knew somewhat before, that her and Nathan Price weren’t for each other and makes her leave him in the end. On page 383, she attempts to explain why she waited so long to do so, as she says, “"We aimed for no more than to have dominion over every creature that moved

The novel opens with a narrative directive, to the reader: 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. The effect of the directive is that it puts the reader in the setting the author wants the book to be seen in. This directive suggests that something has happened that left the forest with ruins in it. When Orleanna narrerates and mentions “you” it appears she is talking to death or a higher power that has some control over her life. The disasters Orleanna talks about are how people and nations turned on the Congo and how people turned on her. She is telling the story looking back on Africa because it seems she is nearing the end of her life slowly not really doing anything anymore just reflecting and her kids telling it as it’s happening because they are younger and still have lives ahead of them.

In Poisonwood Bible, Orleanna is a prime example of how her time in the Congo influenced her handling of guilt. Nathan Price is like a dictator to Orleanna and his daughters forcing them to live in the Congo and fulfill his missionary work. Orleanna describes her marriage as: “By then I was lodged in the heart of darkness, so thoroughly bent to the shape of marriage I could hardly see any other way to stand. Like Methuselah I cowered beside my cage, and though my soul hankered after the mountain, I found, like Methuselah, I had no wings” (201). Orleanna is like a slave to Nathan, paralyzed and has no voice. Explaining that the Congo