The Poisonwood Bible as a Catalog of Romanticism Essay

In the novel, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, Kingsolver uses different literary techniques to develop the harsh setting and have the characters look weak and overwhelmed. The literary techniques used to define the characters and the setting are violent imagery and violent juxtaposition.

Just like the first book in the Bible, the first book of The Poisonwood Bible is named Genesis. As well as the beginning, Genesis can also mean rebirth. When characters arrive in the Congo they realize the things they brought with them are changed by Africa and can no longer be as they once were. In this way, Genesis symbolizes the process of becoming their new selves. For instance, the first chapter in The Poisonwood Bible, narrated by Orleanna, strongly shows the guilt that the Congo had left her to live with after the death of Ruth May. Likewise, Eve, the first woman in Genesis, forced all of mankind to shoulder the guilt of eating the forbidden fruit.

In the historical fiction The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver portrays the American perspective on Africa with the use of a physical representation. In the beginning of the novel, the Price family, the protagonists and narrators, have their own perspective of their journey in a village of Kilanga which is located in South Africa in a congo. The family came with mindsets of missionaries because the father of the family, Nathan, has the desire to spread the word of God and the religion of Christianity throughout the the Congo. However, his unusually amount of urge to change the faith and religion of the African people demonstrate the American perspective because of the ignorance and the lack of acknowledgement of the people and setting. Thus, Barbara Kingsolver uses Nathan as a physical representative of the American perspective. In order to demonstrate the arrogance of the American perspective on the African people, Barbara Kingsolver dramatizes the tension between Nathan and the African people, suggesting that the American people view their principles more superior than principles of the African people despite the difference in setting and influences.

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.

Kingsolver begins the novel with intense, vivid imagery, allowing the reader to fully engulfed in the environment, questioning where such a place exists. Kingsolver’s use of magical realism intertwines reality with fiction as she constructs the setting of the wild Congo. “Every space is filled with life: delicate, poisonous frogs war painted like skeletons, clutched in copulation, secreting their precious eggs onto dripping leaves” (1). Rich literature is woven into every sentence, loaded with foreshadowing and symbolism that the reader can only truly comprehend when the novel is over. The idiosyncratic character of the first opening pages continued to draw the reader back. Every time the opening is read again it had a different meaning depending on where the reader is in the book, and what connections have been are made.

Cultural superiority is the basis of Nathaniel’s attempts to set up a mission in Africa, and “Persuaded of Americans’ election as the chosen people, he ignores local Congolese customs, resists help and information from villagers, and strenuously insists throughout on his own exceptional destiny” (Strehle). He also,“In the distorted evolutionary logic of nineteenth-century imperialism, Nathan considers Africa as inadequately evolved, backward, primitive—a childish culture dwarfed by its grown-up Western colonizers—and thus in need of help from the advanced West.” (Strehle). Said beliefs caused Nathaniel’s superiority complex that caused him to attempt crushing African culture opposed to assimilating into it. The result? A grotesque love child of the taboo, an improper reliance on Christianity for those who abandoned their Congolese culture. When explaining to Nathan the trouble that his church is causing, her claims the village chief held the following concerns; “‘His concern is with the important gods and ancestors of this village, who have always been honored in certain sacred ways”’ (Kingsolver 128). The African people lost their ways due to imperialist religion that was forced upon

When a young author from New York City decides to take a trip to the southern city of Savannah, he finds himself falling in love with the town and ends up renting an apartment. He encounters many different characters, including Danny Hansford and Jim Williams, that gives the reader a good look into the aura of Savannah. The main conflict in the book occurs when a murder happens in an old mansion located in the town. The book follows the progression of the trial and the outcome following the court’s decision.

We live in a paternalistic society which is defined as a society controlled and run by men. Men not only dominate in government and business, but they also make the rules for the world that we live in. It is said to be a "man 's world." In essentially every past and present known society, women have not been treated as the full equals of men. A woman 's main value is to support a man, bear children, and housekeeping duties. This is how it has always been in most cultures. The novel, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, shows the paternalistic society in which the Price family lives in. In 1959 an obstinate Baptist minister named Nathan Price drags his wife and four daughters deep into the heart of the Congo on a mission to save the unenlightened souls of Africa. Nathan Price is a prime example of an arrogant father. He, a servant of God, seems to think that he is God. This complex is magnified by the fact that the minister has a low opinion of the female sex in general, and he does not exclude his daughters or his wife. In a society where men and women are not seen as equals, women struggle to find their identity.

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

There are various depictions of opposite ideas in Barbra Kingsolver’s “The Poisonwood Bible”. Symbols of good and evil, lights and darks, sick and healthy, and social and natural balances are reoccurring images throughout Kingsolver’s work. Among these images is the one shown of Nathan Price and his counterpart Brother Fowles.

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

Having balance is critical for gaining and maintaining a healthy life. Many dedicate their entire lives to achieving it. In The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver – which tells the stories of five women as they embark on a mission trip to the Congo and follows their lives thereafter – the second youngest daughter Adah Price obsesses over balance. Late in life she reteaches herself to walk in order to be able to walk straight instead of crooked, allowing her to become physically balanced. Despite having lost her faith in her father’s God at a young age she is able to find a new God whose motivations she can understand, granting her spiritual balance. She is able to heal herself psychologically, going through mental and emotional upheaval

A pet is something that many people view as a companion, something more than just an animal; yet others don’t see any value in them whatsoever. To these people, a pet can be a nuisance or even a waste of money. This is just one example of how different people can view the same thing in complete opposite ways. This idea also runs through Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, The Poisonwood Bible, as Kingsolver uses five different narrators to allow each one to tell their own version of the family’s time in Africa. The fact that each character sees the same events differently is one of the most important themes in the book. The other themes, such as the role of a woman and the idea of balance are all explored by different characters, because Kingsolver

Often, the things people consider to be valuable have the ability to influence them. For instance, one who values their family is likely to base important life decisions on the impact they would have on his or her relatives. People who value money are known to engage in risky behaviors, such as gambling, in hopes of making a profit. The books we read can have this same power. Books that have value, or merit, are not only able to entertain but also leave the reader thinking about the issues the book discusses long after they've set it down. These pieces of literature leave a lasting impression on their audience for both their artistic storytelling and the impacting message they leave behind. Barbara Kingsolver's novel, The Poisonwood Bible displays