Analysis Of The Poisonwood Bible By Barbara Kingsolver

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver has five different narrators: Orleanna, Leah, Rachel, Adah, and Ruth. The only Price family member that did not get a voice in the novel was Nathan Price. Kingsolver may not have let him have a voice because she wanted to let the readers interpret their own reasons as to why Nathan acts how he does and risk his and his family’s lives. Another reason could perhaps be that he is stubborn and refuses to listen to anyone else. She may have chosen not to include Nathan’s point of view in case it would take from meaning she was trying to portray with the women. His voice alone could have enriched or ruined the book.

He has a military background and he is a highly religious man, but neither of these explain Nathan’s innermost thoughts and his reasoning for why he is the way he is. During his military experience, he escaped his death from the Death March in the war; when he finds out that all of his unit were executed, he feels an overwhelming amount of guilt that he carries forever, and he now believes that he is a coward. He then thinks that God is always watching and always judging him because of his cowardice. Nathan makes a pact to himself that he will save more lives than the ones that were in his unit—even if it means forcibly trying to change the Africans and “save their soul” by converting them into Christianity. With this goal being his only focus, he does not notice all the dangers that he and his family are in.

When he is told that they should leave the Congo, he blatantly refuses to listen to reason and further continues to chance the lives of his family. He is willing to sacrifice other people’s lives for his own goals and needs. His coldness and cruelty only fuels his stubbornness and does not make for an enjoyable