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. It is odd that her book is the exception to the criticism but that does not mean go and attack the culture that she added that doesn't belong in the Congo. Every book is criticized on its content. There is no doubt that someone besides Purcell criticized her use of culture in the book. He claims that “Critics have failed
The criticism may be true; however the book gives a universal view of the course of
Summary of the text: Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa is a historical fiction published in 1998 (Hochschild, 1998). It comprises a myriad of evidence to testify the Belgian King Leopold II’s atrocities in Congo between 1885 and 1908 for the sake of capturing the attention of various readers towards the Belgian imperialist delinquencies through a detailed narration of a number of main characters’, including George Washington Williams and William Henry Sheppard, experiences in Belgian Congo (Hochschild, 1998). In this excerpt, it illustrates William’s peaceful exploration in Congo as the first American-Black missionary. During his journey, not only did he explore the Congolese culture,
Giving up everything is what The Poisonwood Bible is all about. Written by Barbara Kingsolver, a family of five moves to the Congo for missionary purposes. As the evangelical father makes the trip a living nightmare for the family, they grow into the ways of the Congo. Sacrificing basically their whole lives for their fathers religious purposes, the family breaks apart, all going their own ways. Kingsolver makes sure that every character gets a chance to tell their story as the live in the Congo.
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.
This chapter addresses the central argument that African history and the lives of Africans are often dismissed. For example, the author underlines that approximately 50,000 African captives were taken to the Dutch Caribbean while 1,600,000 were sent to the French Caribbean. In addition, Painter provides excerpts from the memoirs of ex-slaves, Equiano and Ayuba in which they recount their personal experience as slaves. This is important because the author carefully presents the topic of slaves as not just numbers, but as individual people. In contrast, in my high school’s world history class, I can profoundly recall reading an excerpt from a European man in the early colonialism period which described his experience when he first encountered the African people.
“Tell all the Truth but Tell it Slant” by Emily Dickinson appears in Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible in an attempt to help her express the theme of difficulty in people understanding the whole truth. Kingsolver shows this theme best through the character Adah Price and her physical disabilities. The meaning of this poem is that a person should tell the whole truth to everyone, but should do so in a way that doesn’t directly upset, shock, or criticize anyone. This is brought up by Adah because it directly relates to how she interprets her disabilities. She doesn’t see how different she truly or what she’s capable of because she tells herself that she’s able to do what anyone else is.
Two women on two different paths to self-enlightenment but both paths end in a realization that one cannot simply focus on oneself; Victorian society, the jungles of the Congo, or the person next door are a part of life. Edna, in The Awakening discovers that she cannot live outside of society’s norms; whereas, Orleanna of The Poisonwood Bible learns how deep seeded guilt can spark self-awareness. While The Awakening’s Edna develops into the beginnings of a self-actualized woman by understanding her deep inner self and finally develops into a version of herself most disillusioned, whereas, Orelanna Price from The Poisonwood Bible becomes enlightened after experiencing the death of a child and understanding how years of obedience brought her
In the novel The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, Leah Price moves to the Congo with her family as part of a missionary. Through their experiences in the Congo, and living amongst a community with many political conflicts, Leah discovers the importance of justice and selflessness. Kingsolver uses assertive and benevolent tones, and symbolism throughout the story to portray the voice of Leah, illustrating Leah’s determination to adamantly strive for justice and equality for Africa and its people, rather than believing that her heritage, her father and God are superior to those around her. Her father’s authority and idealism overshadows her point of view, as she is highly set on her father’s approval and ultimately, God’s approval too. By using phrases such as “But my father needs permission only from the Saviour, who obviously is all in favor of subduing the untamed wilderness for a garden (36)”, Kingsolver establishes Leah’s narrow-minded belief that her father is ‘A Chosen One from God’ and he will pacify the Congolese.
After reading Laura Bohannan’s Shakespeare in the Bush and Horace Miner’s Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, a common theme presents itself between the two articles. Ethnocentrism, particularly within the U.S., is elucidated through the actions of Bohannan while in West Africa, and the reaction of any American reading Miner’s piece about the “magical” Nacirema culture. In Bohannan’s piece, she struggles to prove that Hamlet is a universal story that any culture can easily understand. She speaks to the elders of the Tiv people, and is shocked to conclude that they do not understand Hamlet the way Americans understand it. In Miner’s piece, he cleverly presents the idea of the culture of the Nacirema people who are sadistic in nature, and lack logic
The Poisonwood Bible ultimately communicates that as humans live they acquire their own history, and therefore their own story. History is originally retold through the perspectives of people who experience it, therefore it is littered with, and consequently altered by, their own personal emotions and memories attached to the moments. Adah Price, arguably the most introspective narrator in the novel, sums up human life to be “what [they] stole from history, and how [they] live with it,” which further reiterates the concept that humans redefine history by telling their own stories and recollections of what is most true to them, and how they are managing what they experience. The notion that humans “steal” something from history is clearly conveyed through Adah’s dialogue, which indicates that as humans adopt history as their own stories, and thereby change it, they are stealing some of the authenticity that accompanies history (Kingsolver 492). The Poisonwood Bible in its entirety communicates the variation that can occur in the storytelling of history through the perspectives of the five narrators: Orleanna, Rachel, Leah, Adah and
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.
Intro Paragraph: "How to write about Africa" is a satirical essay written by Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina. In the essay, Wainaina critiques Western media and literature for its ignorance and often racist representation of Africa. Through exaggeration and irony, Wainaina argues that these representations lead to common misconceptions about Africa as a whole and take away from all its diversity and complexity. These rhetorical devices illustrate the Western portrayals of Africa, and its tendency to be described as a place of poverty, disease, and war. Wainaina also acknowledges the ongoing theme of Western writers and journalists telling Africa's stories for them, so this piece also serves as a call for more diverse and authentic voices
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
In that quote you can see the true disgust and hatred for something that was not European. This is just one of many different captains and scholars who traveled to Africa and to their surprise, were stunned by the amazing towns, workmanship, craftsmanship, and art that African people had. This was first accounts of Africa that would eventually lead to Europeans conquering the land and claiming it as their own
There have been various perceptions concerning the history of Africa, and some of these have portrayed Africa in more negative than positive ways. In an attempt to examine the historical aspect of Africa through various lenses, this essay presents an analysis of evidence that have been brought forth towards understanding Africa’s role in world history, as well as reasons and lessons from the negative portrayal of Africa. The history of Africa has been viewed and understood through a variety of lenses in the past few hundred years. To begin with, the origin of the name Africa in itself has drawn a number of controversies that stem from the different perspectives through which the name has been examined.