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Poisonwood Bible Reflection

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In the words of Pauline Hopkins, “And, after all, our surroundings influence our lives and characters as much as fate, destiny, or any supernatural agency.” In the post-colonial fiction, The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, a family of six is being led blind into the Congo in the name of Jesus and left all their modern conveniences behind. There are many shifts in the daily lives and beliefs of the Price’s from the “simple” change of drinking water to the complexity of what Jesus truly means in their lives.While adapting to the new normal throughout the developing years of the Price children’s lives, the second eldest daughter, Leah Price, starts discovering who she is and how she is going to take on the task of life. By replacing each uncertain footstep on the Congolese ground with a new understanding of what life is all about, Leah’s psychological traits shift and then re-introduced through the use of colloquial diction, a theme of divine sense of acceptance, and her inner need for justice reveals who she will become as a person in the face of adversity. Her life as she takes control of it contrasts the life her father, Nathan Price, creates for his daughters from the time they enter in the world, which is parallel to the life, Chopin writes about regarding the role of the mother, “If it was not a mother’s place to look after children, whose on earth was it?”. Destined for a life of housework, kids, and taking care of every duty regarding the aspect of family, Leah

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