Orleanna In Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible

It is too bad that it took the death of one of her daughters to see that him keeping the family in the congo was a dangerous decision. Nathan was very selfish because he was so desperate to try and get the people of the congo to believe in his God and get baptised, he was blamed for the death of his daughter. Leah went from following her father and never doubting him to going completely against what he asks of her. In the end, she marries someone who fights for the rights of the people in the congo. Rachel never got over her immature behaviors and still cared way more about her appearance than she did about anything or anyone

She realized that she was stubborn and gave undeserved loyalty to her husband. I believe that all the characters (mother, sister, lover and others) had a huge impact on that transformation, but the person who had the most impact was Derrick. She was expecting him to work, study, and keep his head down thus he could leave prison early and be back with her. One instance that proved to her she was being fooled by Derrick was when she noticed the scare on his neck, and she asked him what it was then he replied that it was a street thing.

But she finally realizes what life is about. “Just so, my family and Perkin and Meg and Gerd and Aelis and the barn cats and even my father are part of me, and I part of them, so even in my new life I will still be me. Mayhap I can so what I must and still be me, still survive and, please God, even thrive. I have grided my lions like a warrior from the Bible and am going forth to do battle with the enemy. He shall not find a comfortable prize he has won, this gray-eyed, sun-browned beauty.

As the story progresses we come to understand the reason behind all of this. Unfortunately her home life is not the best as she lost her brother and her mother a victim of attempting

The closing chapter describes the Price women returning to Africa many years later as group. The significance of this final chapter is marked by the narration of the deceased Ruth May, who though she is not alive, has came to a spiritual reassessment of her own. Ruth May, who seems to have encountered the worst trial of Africa, death, comes to one of the most preeminent reconciliations of any of the characters. Ruth May offers her mother advice stating, “you can still hold on but forgive, forgive and give for long as long as we both shall live I forgive you” (pg. 543). Orleanna, like Leah, deviated from the ways of Nathan Price after succumbing to the guilt of complying with of his overbearing and disrespectful actions towards the Congolese.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver depicts Adah Price as the forsaken child in a foreign land. Already an outcast in her own family due to her brain deformity, her exposure to the Congo differs from the rest. From “A. D. A. H. Adah” the “ Crooked one” to able body Adah. Her Journey is a sight to behold form the light into the darkness from their somewhere in between and it all begins when the price family goes to the congo.

She started to become more Chaya than Hannah. She forgot the feeling of love, the taste of food, the comfort of having a bed, it all went away. However, she had her friends, and part of her family who helped each other go through those tough times of being

Her husband’s death freed her and she saw the best moments of life that were to soon come. In a brief period of time where there should have been grief there was instead joyfulness and relief. She realized that she would have the rest of her life to live for herself and not her husband. There is no one to command her anymore and this is why

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.

Her family, as she realizes the people they truly are, also change her thought process and mindset from when they lived back home in Georgia. As the Congo becomes their home, moral lessons were taught until the day the Price family departs from the Congo, but not all of them. Leah Price was introduced as a fourteen year old girl who is very intelligent and who idealizes her father, a godly man whose rules are stricter than most. The family is departing from Bethlehem, Georgia on a mission trip to Africa for a year with not much from home. Prior to the touchdown in the Congo, Kingsolver helps the reader understand Leah’s character by showing how she describes herself as the favorite and the smartest of the four girls.

I believe a difficult moment for her was when her mother and Lori went away for the summer and left her in charge to pay the bills and feed the kids. Her father kept asking for money and as he expected her to do she would hand it over. He eventually convinced her that for her to get the money back he needed her to go on a “business trip” with him. This trip entailed her practically being sold to a man for sex by her own father. She kept thinking that her father would stop this man or that her father would come save her if anything were to happen.

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!

“If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view [...] until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” (Lee, chapter 3,). This quote reveals, to place yourself in their shoes and see things how they see it. It is revealing Scout’s coming of age moment because she is learning to put herself in someone else's position and try to understand

Lastly, Orleanna, she was the maternal perspective, who talked about the struggle of

Without compassion the world would be a dark place, there would be no such thing as love and there would be no one to lend a helping hand. Even in society today, people approach situations with no compassion, humans discriminate against others because of differences in color or appearances. In the book "To Kill a Mockingbird" the author, Harper Lee, writes about a town that shows no compassion towards people of color even when there are lives at risk. In the book, we learn that "[you 'll] never understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it. "(Lee