Essay on The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

The closing of Poisonwood Bible recapitulates all that has happened throughout the eyes of no other than Ruth May, watching from the trees. She leaves the reader and he family with peace, she is not angry, she is not upset, she is content. “Being dead is not worse than being alive” (538). Ruth May’s insightful voice echoes that of her mothers in the beginning. Ruth May has matured, not only in her diction but her purpose has to morphed into

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

From the beginning of the novel, it can be easily seen that he looks down upon his wife and four daughters. According to Leah, his young daughter, Nathan “often says he views himself as the captain of a sinking mess of female minds” (Kingsolver, 36), which reveals that even a young and naive child is able to clearly recognize her father’s desire for power over women. Additionally, his lust for authority leads him to be incredibly stubborn towards the women in his household. When his wife and children plea to be taken back to Georgia for their own safety (and he, of course, declines), Rachel states that “Father would sooner watch us all perish one by one than listen to anybody but himself” (Kingsolver, 169), which ultimately results in the death of his youngest daughter, Ruth May. Overall, his hankering for dominance over women enhances the work, by demonstrating how some utilize religion as an opportunity to dominate others, instead of viewing it as a source of comfort and peace with oneself and

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

Adah’s psychological state is her first step to achieving balance through acceptance. Throughout her youth, Adah often believes she is worth nothing, particularly because of her physical disorder:

She reminisces about the “childhood energy [she] spent on feeling betrayed” (532) by her twin Leah, how she put the blame for her limp on Leah. With both age and the discovery that her disability was the result of a misunderstanding made by her body, she is able to at last recognize that doing this was unjust and unfair. Through acknowledgement of these faults and mistakes she is able to move past them. She never becomes much of a talker but is able to find friends who can understand her and who she is able to enjoy spending time with while passing “whole evenings without need for any sentence” (532). Having people who she can connect with helps her emotional health, an important part of being psychologically sound. Losing her limp allows her to fully realize who she is, giving her the understanding that however she looks on the outside she will “always be Ada inside” (496). Her core personality does not change because her body changes, she remains the crooked truth teller she has always been (496). Seeing that she is able to remain quintessentially the same person intellectually helps her to deal with the nostalgic feelings she has towards her limp. Finally dealing with the problems she has permits Adah to move on with her life in happiness, having achieved psychological

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

Nowadays, in today’s society, survival is considered the basic instinct of all humans. Commonly defined as the state of “continuing to live or exist, in spite of an accident, ordeal or difficult circumstance,”(Dictionary) survival teaches us the will to succeed and face adversity despite the challenges and obstacles we may encounter along the way. In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel “ The Poisonwood Bible,” there is a central theme of survival. Whether it includes finding supplies and resources or fending off predators, the Congo presents challenges in which the Price Family must strive to overcome. Through the use of setting, allusion, style and symbolism readers are able to understand each character’s reaction and adaptability to the adversities of the congo.

In his essay “Walking” Henry David Thoreau offers the following assessment of literature: “In literature it is only the wild that attracts us. Dullness is but another name for tameness. It is the uncivilised free and wild thinking in Hamlet and The Iliad, in all scriptures and mythologies,not learned in schools, that delights us” Write an essay in which you explain what constitutes The Poisonwood Bible’s “uncivilised, wild and free thinking,” and how that thinking is central to the value and meaning of the work as a whole.

Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, The Poisonwood Bible, is about a missionary family, the Prices, who move from Bethlehem, Georgia to a small village in the Congo. They choose to move during a time when there is great upheaval about to happen in the region. The reader learns about their trials and tribulations of life in the Congo through the five Price females, who talk about the events from their own the points of view. In the beginning, I thought I would not like this book; however I found that I had a hard time putting it down and ended up finishing the book quickly. There were many things Kingsolver did to make this book so appealing. From her use of dialogue and imagery, with such different character personalities, set in a historical time which gave this piece of fiction a hint of authenticity, to her underlying theme of human nature, both good and bad. It is all of these things combined which make The Poisonwood Bible a highly recommended book to read.

Virginia Woolf once iterated, “ I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.” Often, the endeavors of women in history go undocumented or discounted, hindered by either the prevailing male entities which tend to govern most enterprises or, the establishment of a structure which markedly devalues them. With a similar sentiment, in Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, the efforts of women are noted to occur without recognition from the patriarchal structure which governs the societies discussed. Towed to the Congo by the will of the father and husband, Nathan Price, Orleanna and her four daughters, Ruth May, Leah, Adah, and Rachel must struggle to survive and support Nathan, while

However, like in this novel, guilt can be good as it can motivate a person to attempt to make amends and to try to repair damage. As a result of the guilt these three characters had, they made up for France’s darkest

One pattern that the author Barbara Kingsolver consistently focused on throughout The Poisonwood Bible is the use of words and language. Each girl in the Price family has a different relationship with language, and the language barrier better the Congolese and the Price family proves to either aid or hinder understanding between the two cultures.

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, by Barbara Kingsolver, involves the Price family of 6, which consists of Orleanna, her husband Nathan, and their 4 daughters. They go on a missionary trip to the Congo in the 1960’s led by Nathan, whose purpose was to spread Christianity in the Congo. Throughout their journey within the Congo, each individual family member faces many hardships. These hardships involve patriarchy. Throughout the Poisonwood Bible, Kingsolver expresses feminist ideologies through Orleanna’s chapters. Orleanna expresses a lot of her thoughts on what she goes through with her family, while connecting to others around the world. Essentially, the reason why Kingsolver expresses these ideologies is because she wants to inform her readers of the patriarchy that existed throughout history, and is still existing today.