In the novel, there are many similarities and differences between Amari’s village and the plantation. There are many similarities between Amari’s village and the plantation. A similarity is there are Africans in both places. They also grow crops in both places. She has people
In the beginning of the novel, Leah is a young Christian, American girl who looks up to her father, Nathan Price. Leah looks up to her father, describing him as “having a heart as large as his hands. And his wisdom is great” (42). This shows how much respect Leah has for her father. She puts her father on a high pedestal as he “understands everything” (66).
In fact, with all their differences, the three regions later combined to create the great nation known today as the United States. One of the big differences between the three regions was their topography and climate, which led to different types of agriculture. For instance, the New England Colonies had many mountains and forests due to its glaciers. Since it had sandy soil, short summers and long lasting winters, the Puritans who landed in New England weren’t able to farm many types of crops. The cold weather negatively impacted their agriculture.
The title, The Poisonwood Bible, is an excellent title for the plot of this book. “Tata Jesus is bangala” (331), which has two different meaning because bangala means precious and also the poisonwood tree. Reverend Price says this phrase at the end of every sermon, but he mispronounces the word bangala so that it means poisonwood tree. So the locals think he is saying “Jesus is the poisonwood tree” instead of “Jesus is precious.” This makes the title very important because it makes the Congolese not want to know God because they think He is poisonwood.
Orleanna says, "To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals really know" (385). Adah says, about her mother, "... she constantly addresses the ground under her feet. Asking forgiveness. Owning, disowning, recanting, recharting a hateful course of events to make sense of her own complicity.
In many ways the Congo changes the young fourteen-year-old girl into a strong independent woman. There are many encounters in the novel where she starts to question her faith in God as well as in her father. For example, hearing stories about rubber plantation workers getting their hands chopped off because they were not able to get the desired about of rubber startles Leah and makes her question race relations. Race becomes a dominant issue at this point and her experiences in Kilanga have invalidated all she had been taught about race in America. At this point, Leah starts to go on her own and figure out whom she is.
In the novel, The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, a missionary family travel to the African Congo during the 1960’s, in hopes of bringing enlightenment to the Congolese in terms of religion. The father, Nathan, believes wholeheartedly in his commitment, and this is ultimately his downfall when he fails to realize the damage that he is placing upon his family and onto the people living in Kilanga, and refuses to change the way he sees things. However, his wife, Orleanna, and her daughters, Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May, take the Congo in, and make the necessary changes in their lives, and they do this in order to survive with their new darkness that they are living in. Curiosity and acceptance help the ones with curious minds,
The Poisonwood Bible explores multiple different meanings ranging from love and loyalty, to ignorance and political oppression. While it is a story of the journey of the Price family in the Congo, Kingsolver uses these narratives to draw a bigger picture of the geopolitics that are at play in the Congo. I think the overarching theme of the novel is ignorance and its opposite: empathy. We follow the journeys of ignorant characters such as Rachel and Nathan Price and are given a parallel with the journeys of Adah, Leah, and Orleanna. However Kingsolver showcases the realities of life here or beyond by the end of the novel where it is clear that none of the characters we met at the beginning would end up with lives that fulfilled all their dreams
Adah Price is the disabled daughter of Nathan and Orleanna Price in the novel “The Poisonwood Bible”, she knows the benefits and struggles from the form of exile she experiences. Adah has dealt with alienation from the moment she was born and her disability was first discovered. Throughout the novel we witness Adah’s disorder and how it affects her and her family's life both in positive and negative ways. With all of Adah’s struggles we see her exiled from her family, her home, and even herself.
This further expands on the meaning by showing the contrast of how little the Congolese care for others’ appearances when compared to the American view. The Congolese shared their view on appearances near the beginning of the novel when describing Mama Mwanza and Mama Nguza. The Americans think Orleanna became tainted while she was in the Congo. Even though Orleanna used to live in Bethlehem, the other residents of the town don’t view her the same way as they did before she went to the Congo. Adah even commented on their reception: “...welcome home the pitiful Prices!
Each character goes to the Congo thinking of ways to use techniques from home to make the African village more “prosperous”. Instead of trying to figure the people out, they automatically assume the stereotypes like most Americans do. In the beginning of the novel, Ruth May says, “Rex Minton said we better not go to the Congo on account of the cannibal natives would boil us in a pot and eat us up” (6). The quote is a perfect example of how a lot of Americans view tribal culture. The author is completely accurate.
Imagine being fourteen years old and living in a small town in Georgia, packing up as much as you can, or what could fit under your clothes and into a bag, and moving to the Congo of Africa. That’s exactly what the Price family did under their father’s will. Throughout Barbara Kingsolver 's Poisonwood Bible, Leah price experiences the Congo to its’ full potential. Both her psychological and moral traits were formed by cultural, physical, and geographical surroundings. The congolese people influence her decisions and thoughts throughout the book.
Eatonville is a place of repression, what with how Janie worked in the shop, and how gossip ran rampant through the town if deliberation occurred. Eatonville is not a negative and antagonistic place, but simply a place of high standards, which did not suit the independent nature of Janie Crawford. Opposing this place, the rural location known as “The Muck” has almost entirely different motifs. The Everglades was home to farmers and common workmen, not the high-class citizens of Eatonville. People were also free to come as they were, and be treated equally.
Spending a generous amount of time in the heart of the African Congo is bound to change an American family. After spending over a year in the small Congolese village of Kilango, the Price family comes to terms with the fact that they cannot leave Africa without being changed by it, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Living in the Congo at a time when their race was doing all in their power to Westernize Africa, the Price women left Kilanga feeling immense guilt for being a part of this unjust manipulation of the African people. By the end of the novel, all of the Price women leave with the task of reconciling the wrongs they have committed and learning to live with the scars of their mistakes. Kingsolver showcases the moral reassessments
Henry Fisher Mrs. Hillesland AP English 11 11 December 2015 Strength in Numbers Skilled writers take different approaches in their narration to accurately convey their message. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, is a novel about the Prices, a religious family who moves from Georgia a village in the Congo. Their story, which parallels the western appearance into our current era, is told through multiple narrators: Orleanna—Nathan Price 's wife, and their four daughters--Rachel, Leah, Adah, Ruth May. Kingsolver wrote her novel through the eyes of the five Price women to constitute a parallel between the unrest in the Congo, and the Price family who is abused by Nathan. Therefore, he represents the western exploitation of Africa and
