The Price Family In The Poisonwood Bible By Barbara Kingsolver

The Price Family is very religious and has a strong belief in God. Therefore, it only makes sense to have allusions throughout the story. Allusions bring the theme across because it helps the readers to see what happens when someone is guilty. For instance, if the girls do something they are not supposed to do the father, Nathan, would tell the girls “‘you have The Verse’” (Kingsolver 59). The Verse is a punishment to make them feel guilty for something wrong they

For example, Lorraine's mother always tells her “you’re not a pretty girl Lorraine.”, she also always calls Lorraine fat and ugly. Lorraine’s mother does not set a good example for Lorraine because she bullies her. Another example is John’s father likes to lie which rubbed off on John, one time John’s father went around bragging how he phonied up a car insurance claim to get a hundred dollars to replace a piece of aluminum on their new car, which he had really replaced himself. John’s father taught John that lying was not bad without even knowing. John’s family also had other issues because John’s father was an alcoholic and did not care if John drank beer. John was not old enough to drink beer but his father did not care because he was an alcoholic. Both families show that they have bad family values because they are mean and

Nathan’s motives in the novel are to change the religious traditions of the Congolese people and replace them with his views on what religion should be. Nathan is the reason all the Prices were dragged to this place. He feels that he can fix these people, which is an example of western cultural arrogance. While Nathan is the driving force for this theme, all the Prices are guilty of cultural arrogance in this novel. Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May all portray that their coming to Africa is meant to bring a superior way of life to the Congolese.

All families have conflicts, and the Price family is no exception. Within the story there is an overriding conflict regarding the Price women‘s opposition to the move to Africa. Beyond this, Nathan has many other conflicts with each of his daughters. Leah and her father had a very different relationship than the other three Price daughters. Leah is the only daughter that wholeheartedly supports her father completely. As the story moves on she is faced with the harsh realities of daily life in the Congo, and begins to see her Fathers faults. She soon wants to be her own person, and not be controlled by her father. The major parent/child conflict arises when Nathan does not recognize his daughter’s

Rachel Price is a character within the novel who is very self-centered, arrogant, selfish, racist, and independent. Although some of these characteristics go along with each other, others seem to contradict each other. Rachel’s selfishness shows through in many parts of the book. She is typically only focused on her successes and issues, without much regard to anyone else.

Before Leah move to Congo, she clearly believes that her father is a God-like figure. When Mama Tataba and Leah’s father, Nathan, argue about how to correctly tend the soil, Leah observes how her father “stood his ground… tall as Goliath and pure of heart as David” (40). Comparing Nathan to biblical figures such as Goliath, a long-time undefeated warrior, and David, a man who defeated Goliath with his faith in God, shows how Leah views her father. Nathan has an undeniably strong relationship with God, and that Leah aspires to have that kind of strong bond with her father, who represents an almighty figure like God in her life. Because Leah sees her father as an idol, she believes that although “Not everyone can see it… [her] father’s heart is as large as his hands” (42). Leah chooses to ignore others’ opinions about her father because she is unaware at the time of her father’s true character; she sees her father as an inspiring, caring, and knowledgeable man. She uses Nathan’s past experiences, such as his participation in the Second World War, to justify his wisdom and actions. Leah, therefore, devotes her early life to gain her father’s approval. When Leah and her sisters take the blame for teaching Methuselah, the parrot, profanity, Nathan

explains what it was like before she stopped listening to Nathan: “Feared Him, loved Him,

Sexism appears in all corners of the world. From North America to the Congo, we see male dominance in different forms. In The Poisonwood Bible, Nathan Price, his wife, and their four daughters move to present day Democratic Republic of the Congo in order to spread Christianity in Africa. Their arrival in Africa is quite the culture shock in all aspects to the North American family. When learning to strive in the village of Kilanga, the Price women

Nathan is the center of pain for the Price family. First, he forces them to leave their luxurious home in Bethlehem, Georgia, and move all the way to the Congo, isolated from their modern society. All four of the children are deprived from a proper education, and the entire family is restricted

Throughout the novel, Nathan exhibits cruelty towards his family and the villagers. Cruelty is a direct antonym of Love. Looking back to the Bible, Paul states in a letter to the: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love ( New International Version, 1 Corinthians 13:13).” While Nathan may be spreading faith and hope, because of his cruelty, he is certainly not showing love, which according to scripture is the most important. Instead of loving his wife Orleanna, Nathan rebukes her many times for no reason and even acts out in physical cruelty by roughly batting Orleanna away as she tried to nurse his wounds. Nathan’s actions are again hypocritical and go directly against the Bible says. Paul, in another letter, writes “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (Ephesians 5:25). Ultimately Nathan is not able to convince any of the villagers to be baptized because he has not showed love and therefore not God to them. John, another apostle, states to a church that is struggling with false prophets: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love”(1 John 4:8). One may conclude from these verses that even though Nathan Price may have some knowledge of the Bible, he truly does not know God,

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

It wasn’t until Nathan started going to W.E. Waters when his views changed on his priorities. Being around his “own people” distracted him from seeing what his true goal in life was. Now, instead of focusing on his education, he instead focused on the latest trends and worried about fitting into the social scene believing that he “had to work on getting [his]

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver has many depictions of parent child conflicts. The source of most if not all of these conflicts arise when Nathan Price does not recognize his daughter’s needs and desires as individuals from himself. He tends to group them together as one entity when punishing, but then ignores all of them when they do something right. This is apparent mostly in how Leah wants her father's affection, how Rachel wants to have her voice heard, and how Adah wants her father to acknowledge her. There are other conflicts based on Nathan and his daughters but these are the most prevalent throughout the novel.

Nathan price is the embodiment of ignorance. While explaining to Leah why Mama Tataba formed their garden into mounds, “He assured [Leah] that Mama Tataba hadn’t meant to ruin our demonstration garden. There was such a thing as native customs, he said. We would need the patience of Job, ‘She's only trying to help in her

From the time people are born to their last moments of childhood, they invest in an object of security, something to keep them safe, something to always be there. The true mark of adulthood comes from abandoning this security item to walk forward without any weight. Just like all people, Leah in Barbara Kingsolver’s “The Poisonwood Bible” was no different. Leah spent her whole life clinging on to her father, Nathan, and as a result, she was blinded to what truly mattered to her. The loving presence of a family could not be seen behind his controlling ways. Her dependence on him kept herself from realizing whom she actually cared about. Moreover, the reliance on Nathan meant her actions were truly not her own. Rather