Poisonwood Bible Allusions

Ultimately, the human heart seeks comfort and familiarity. The great unknown strips away this feeling of safety, leading to a vulnerability that draws the true nature of a person into the harshness of reality. Unfamiliar environments, newly met strangers, the imminent and all-too-unpredictable future--these things generally incite feelings of insecurity and anxiety; for some, panic accompanies the thought of not having control. Some avoid matters of fear altogether, opting for a life softened with intentional ignorance. It is the fatal tendency of mankind to manipulate their troubles into trivial tasks that can easily be ignored and eventually forgotten, or at the very least, left to the side.

A Response to Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible and the essentializing of Africa: a critical double standard? Barbara Kingsolver was not able to enter the Congo/Zaire while she was writing this book. She admits that she is relying on memories, other cultures, and others accounts of what the Congo/Zaire is like to write this book. I disagree with what William F. Purcell has to say about the use of cultures in her book.

he Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver focuses on both real life and fictional events and tells the story of the Price family’s experience in the Congo. Kingsolver makes good use of foreshadowing to dramatize the tragic incidents that occur in Africa. Orleanna Price is the most reliable narrator in the novel and is used to foreshadow future events and to explain various aspects of the past. In the first chapter, Orleanna maps out all the major events that will occur throughout the book.

Rachel Burrell Hanson English II May 20, 2016 The Poisonwood Bible Faith can be lost throughout time. In The Poisonwood Bible, this proves to be true especially in the case with Adah, Leah and their father, Nathan Price. Adah and Leah, two reliable narrators, both end the novel believing their father to be unprincipled, thus dramatically shaping the tone of the novel regarding Nathan Price. Adah starts the novel skeptical of her father and she observes his arrogance towards others, while Leah admires Nathan Price.

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.

A Poisonwood Bible 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.

Could you ever imagine having to uproot your family’s entire way of life to travel across the ocean to a foreign country that would not fully commit to your belief of Christianity? In Barbara Kingsolver’s intriguing novel, The Poisonwood Bible, she tells the story of a typical all American family from Bethlehem, Georgia. The readers’ are able to visualize the family’s lives being completely revised by the chain of events that takes place through their God led journey to the Congo. The Price family is very familiar to the certain lifestyle the United States offers, where we take advantage of having our everyday necessities on hand, even down to our Betty Crocker cake mixes, access to fresh drinking water, protection from an abundance of diseases, and much more. They quickly begin to understand that if they want to survive all in one piece, they must adapt to this new way of life.

The Poisonwood Bible and Heart of Darkness are set in the Congo where each plot has a similar structure; white characters from a highly civilized and industrial Western country venture into the heart of darkness and become significantly changed by their environment and experiences. Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, follows the story of Marlow, an English sailor who is sent by the Belgian Company into the Congo in order to find and retrieve Kurtz, a man who has deteriorated into savagery. Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible is about Nathan Price, a desperate missionary, who forces his wife and four daughters to leave their comfortable life in Georgia to go to the Congo. Although each story takes place in a different time period, both

In Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible the Price family follows their missionary father, Nathan Price, to the Congo. Throughout the novel the children start out excited for the trip, but as time goes on they are longing to go home. Leah Price, the middle daughter, starts off ready for the journey and the new things she will learn and find and even though she is a girl from Bethlehem, Georgia she doesn’t hesitate to do anything to fit in. The surroundings, culture and people in the Congo begin to change her and she learns how to do new things and is enlightened in what she believes.

While it may seem like racism is not a problem in today’s society, it very much is. It was a larger problem before our time, as shown in the novel, The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver. People witness racism everyday, whether they realize they do or not. Racism, by definition, is the belief that one race of people is better than another race of people. It is everywhere; on the radio, on television, on social media; however, it is not prohibited like it should be.

“Battle Royal” by Ralph Ellison: “And all the while the blonde continued dancing, smiling faintly at the big shots who watched her with fascination, and faintly smiling at our fear. I noticed a certain merchant who followed her hungrily, his lips loose and drooling. He was a large man who wore diamond studs in a shirtfront which swelled with the ample paunch underneath, and each time the blonde swayed her undulating hips he ran his hand through the thin hair of his bald head and, with his arms upheld, his posture clumsy like that of an intoxicated panda, wound his belly in a slow and obscene grind” (4). This is a “key” passage in the larger text because the woman here is simply a metaphor for the minority’s, blacks and women, gruesome experiences

Transcending the Untranscendable German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.” Nietzsche’s proclamation would be in direct opposition to Puritan societies of the 1600s. Throughout history, social movements have often been led by society’s youth. The Free Speech Movement of the 20th century originated on a college campus, and spread rapidly across the country, inspiring copious amounts of youth activism in protesting the Vietnam War. As Nietzsche suggests, a governing body is at great fault when they encourage and require conformity from their youth.