Ignorance In The Poisonwood Bible

With great power comes great responsibility—even if said power was not rightfully earned to begin with. In positions of power, humanity is prone to an overexertion of force to ensure those positions are secured, vying to push them to greater heights that cannot be overtaken. In Poisonwood Bible and Things Fall Apart, these tendencies manifest into ardent displays of cruelty; within itself, cruelty becomes a defense mechanism, a coping method, a disciplinary tool, rash and injust from fear of this superiority being lost. The driving point of this cruelty is that it festers within insecurity and is fed by greed. In the novels it reflects the presence of not only patriarchal dominance, but also religious, cultural, and racial puissance. Ironically,

Having read, The Poisonwood Bible book, it was both fascinating and interesting. The author, Barbara Kingsolver, was quick with her diction and used quite a lot of figurative language. The objective of the book was to show the true meaning of Africa and show how it was difficult to convert the people of Africa to Christianity religion. The setting was present in Georgia, which later they traveled to a village called Kilanga in Congo, in which they started their journey. The main characters includes, Nathan Price who was the main character, his wife Orleanna Price, and their four daughters, Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May.

Barbara Kingsolver does a wonderful job with incorporating literary devices into her novel. These literary devices help the reader to experience the words written on the page and it allows the reader to think that they are actually living the story. One major literary device that Kingsolver uses throughout the book to show her ideas to the reader is imagery. “Her dark hair is tied in a ragged lace handkerchief, and her curved jawbone is lit with large, false-pearl earrings, as if these headlamps from another world might show the way.” (pg 5) When I hear these words, I am able to paint a picture inside of my head of Orleana Price. I am able to imagine what she looks like and this imagery provides the reader with direct characterization of

Since 1991 the Westboro Baptist Church has preached their hatred towards Jews, Catholics, and Homosexuals. Over the years the Westboro Baptist Church has formed into a hate group rather than a religious organization. The church has less than forty members, mainly consisting of the founder Fred Phelps children and his grandchildren. The church started off as a normal southern baptist church back when it was founded in the 1950’s. But as time went on, Fred Phelps forced his own opinions onto God’s message.The church began to follow Fred's lead and picketed numerous public events including a ceremony for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting, Arlington National Cemetery’s Memorial Day Service, and

on a person, in this case it’s Adah. The exile she had around her family and

In Barbara Kingsolver’s work, The Poisonwood Bible, Nathan Price is a character which responds to injustice in some significant way. Out of all the other characters, Nathan is the one who responds the most to an act of injustice by going on a campaign halfway around the world to somehow repay his obligation to God. He plans to do this by spreading Christianity, or at least his version of Christianity, to the native people of the Congo. The whole reason for him doing this is that he believes being wounded and leaving battle right before the rest of his company dies is an act of injustice and feels as if though he should have died there with his men. Nathan feels like he is a failure and is guilty for not dying with his brothers on the battlefield.

The concept The Poisonwood Bible is trying to bring to recognition is that there are always multiple perspectives to any story. The usage of several narrators allows one to see the same story from different points of views that all differ. It also displays how storytelling is a reflection of a person’s experiences and lives, because one’s experiences shape their perspectives or biases. For example, Adah’s more analytical perspective allows her to analyze situations life presents to her in a deeper level such as her ideas on the circle of life and Africa. This perspective allows her to be successful in her career field as well. Contrary to this, Rachael’s cocky and shallow perspective does not allow her to analyze situations from a deep perspective. For example, she is always thinking short term, such as when she brags about how she had several husbands. Her attitude, does allow her to be successful in her business. It does nothing to better her character, though, causing her to be the most uneducated and naive of the three. The usage of multiple narrators could symbolize the fact that the situation in the Congo also has multiple perspectives and is a complicated web, as life is.

Jonathan edwards, is known as one of the most important religious figures of the great awakening, edwards became known for his zealous sermon “sinners at the hand of an angry god”. During his sermon he implies that if his congregation does not repent to christ they are in “danger of great wrath and infinite misery”. Throughout this sermon edwards uses literary devices such as strong diction, powerful syntax and juxtaposition to save his congregation from eternal damnation.

The great awakening was a religious revival that occurred in the 1730s and 1740s. It started in England and then gradually made its way over to the American colonies. During this time, many different preachers and religious speakers went around and gave speeches to the people. Jonathan Edwards was one of Americas most important and original philosophical theologians who also went around and gave speeches about God and hell. One of his well-known sermon is “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” preached at the meeting house in the village of Enfield, Connecticut, on Sunday, July 8, 1741, at the height of the great awakening. In this sermon, Edwards focused on the consequences of leading a sinful life, the power of God and repenting of ones sins, in order to be saved from hell. The purpose behind this piece of writing was not to terrorize or dismay the hearers, but to make them repent and believe in God again. This piece was aimed at those who lacked belief in God as well as churches. In “sinners in the hands of an angry God”, Jonathan Edwards uses different types of literary techniques, such as, imagery, metaphor, similes, repetition, and rhetorical questions to emphasize his point. His point is to scare the people and make them want to repent, which is the theme of the sermon.

Pauline Hopkins once said that “our surroundings influence ours lives and characters as just as much as fate, destiny, or any supernatural agency does.” In most cases, Hopkins would be correct. One can absolutely see this concept in the case of Leah Price from The Poisonwood Bible. Early in this novel, Leah Price is the daughter that tried to follow in her father 's footsteps. Almost everything that Leah does is to gain the respect from her father, Nathan, that she so craves. Leah’s fight for Nathan’s attention and love has gone on for years, since she was born basically. Things quickly change for Leah, however when she meets Anatole. Being with and around Anatole shows Leah exactly how bad life in the Belgian Congo really is for the Congolese

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,

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. We all are, I suppose. Trying to invent our version of the story. All human odes are essentially one. ‘My life: what I stole from history, and how I live with it. ' (492). What does this novel ultimately say about storytelling? The Poisonwood Bible claims that, in storytelling, everyone tries to reform their own version of their life into an appealing story, talking mainly about the struggles they face in their life and “how they live with it” (Kingsolver 492). Adah claims that all stories are exactly based off of this essential element, a type of archetype that has many archetypals, but are all still considered the same thing. For example, if a war hero wrote a story on his life in WWII and another writer, a biologist, wrote a story on a Grizzly Bear. Both are different in topic, setting, characters, and plot, but both address the story of a living being that lived and faced good times and hardships along the way.

When describing Patrice Lumumba, Barbara Kingsolver uses complementary wording that makes the reader like him, or at least respect him. The Belgian doctor puts a cast on Ruth May’s arm on page 149 and calls Lumumba “the new soul of Africa”, which introduces Lumumba to the reader as a positive idea. When Leah sees Lumumba on pages 221-222, he’s described as “a thin, distinguished man” and that “when he stood to speak, everyone’s mouth shut... Even the birds seemed taken aback”. This portrayal makes him appear smart and scholarly and the reader is partial to him. His way of speaking is told to us by Leah to be “rising in such a way that heaven and anger get mingled together”, which presents the reader with Lumumba’s passion and how well-spoken he is.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver shows the women of the Congo as being the workers of the family. They take care of the children, going so far as to carry them around constantly once they reach a certain age, and they are responsible for all the housework. The females are seen as capable and have many responsibilities. In spite of this, the reality for the real women of the Congo is that they are in constant fear of being a victim of sexual violence. Sexual violence can happen anywhere, but in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) it occurs on a daily basis (Ganzamungu and Maharaj 737).

How do you describe the characteristics and requirements of a real “home”? In the Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, the outspoken and bold character known as Leah Price experiences a major rift between her family and former American homelife that leads her to transfer her obsessions over acceptance by her father to the conflict within the Congo and her lover, Anatole. Leah’s failure to receive the approval from her father through religious excellence and prestige along with the death of her youngest sister, Ruth May, led her to resent the ideals and oppressive hand that her father had implemented since her birth. Anatole’s evident acceptance and admiration of Leah’s individuality allowed Leah to feel fulfilled in her need for acceptance by a