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The poisonwood bible literary criticism
How is cruelty seen in literature
The poisonwood bible, and others
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Throughout The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver implements the nature of cruelty into her writing to underscore the themes of cultural arrogance and societal injustice. Additionally, the cruel actions taken place in this detailed novel highlight the four individual daughter’s unique and intriguing perspectives along their journey in the Congo. From the innocence of young Ruth May to the unbound recklessness of Reverend Price, the reader witnesses the compelling mindsets and thought processes in times of adversity and hardships as they reflect on how cruel the world can be. Cruelty functions both significantly in the connection between the reader and the characters view points as well as conveying the central theme of injustice in the work, …show more content…
One example of Price’s cruelty happens when Adah informs the reader that they “had to endure Father’s escalating rage” (Kingsolver 219) and “rubbed their bruises when it “reached a certain point” (Kingsolver 219). These series of quotes focuses on the cruel physical abuse that the daughters have to encounter as well as underscoring the Reverend’s lack of patience and understanding. Also when Leah disobeys her father for the first time, his berserk character uncovers as he “thrashes the trees with his belt” (Kingsolver 340). Of course, the rest of the family was terrified to death of Nathan’s rage, as they “pushed the beds around so that the door was blocked” (Kingsolver 340). The frightened females even obtained “metal pot lids and knives and things from the kitchen to protect” (Kingsolver 340) themselves. This burst of cruel relentless implies to the reader that Nathan Price intends to inflict harm against anyone who opposes by the way his family barricaded themselves in the bed room with kitchen armor. This defensive reaction therefore suggests that Nathan Price has used his power to hurt and abuse his wife and children which conclusively reveals his violent, prideful, and arrogant nature.
In conclusion, cruelty fulfills a vital role in Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible where it contributes immensely in reader engagement and theme awareness. From the many cruel actions imbedded in the in story line, the reader benefits tremendously in analyzing the characters in precise detail. Successfully, Kingsolver applies cruelty to her advantage as it enhances the work to strengthen the plot, theme, and reader
The change in narrators in The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver conveys the theme of western arrogance through naiveté, malapropisms, and the change in mentality found in the various narrations of the characters.
While literature often follows some pattern and can be predictable, it is often evolving and can change in an instant depending on the author. In most Gothic literature, a derivative of Romanticism, there is a gothic space in the work – a limited space in which anything can happen in contrast to the normal world in the work. In addition, normally, order is restored at the end of Gothic literature – the good is rewarded and the bad is punished. In his Gothic novella, The Terrible Vengeance (1981), Nicolai Gogol decided to expand the ‘normal’ idea of Gothic literature by, in the work, transforming the traditional Gothic space to encompass anything and everything; in addition to the use of space, through the ending in which there is no reward, Gogol conveyed the idea that evil is prevalent everywhere and in everyone.
In the novel “One Foot in Eden” the character Widow Glendower represents both the catastrophic and supernatural nature of human personality. Ron Rash achieves this by combining deep knowledge of the world, devoutness and antagonism of one being. At the beginning of this novel an event takes place with a person who is viewed as a local villain vanishes in the forests. The manipulation of the witch starts it all.
In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Poisonwood Bible, characters Adah and Rachel Price differ in their outlooks on life. Adah contrasts Rachel with her inside reality, her dark fiction, as well as her dependence on others due to her slant. Rachel, on the other hand, loves the outside reality, compares her life to that of a light fairy tale, and is independent. Kingsolver’s choice of two vastly different characters aids in the demonstration of the complexity each character has. In order to portray each character’s aspects, Kingsolver uses forms of diction, metaphors, and symbolism.
This book teaches the reader that cruel people will get what is coming to them eventually. Assef gets punishes for his wrong doings even though it was later on his terrible
The killings made by the slaves are saddening, too. Mutilating the whites and leaving their bodies lying is inhumane. It is such a shocking story. This book was meant to teach the reader on the inhumanity of slavery. It also gives us the image of what happened during the past years when slavery was practised.
Many stories throughout our culture present many difficulties and challenges where characters are forced to go through many trials to develop their personalities. Writers create extremely intricate lives for the characters in which they have to fight through either their own personal difficulties or problems presented by the world. The readers learn very intimate and secretive details about these characters until they feel as if they know them personally. Readers of the story find very specific details about the story and make many very clever connections between the strangest of things in the story but they make perfect sense. In the story, The Scarlet Ibis, many extremely surprising facts about the story were linked in a very macabre way and they were rather interesting. Many of these connections have been dissected and discussed very thoroughly, but many more challenges and connections can still be found.
The reader starts to see that the system of slavery is a cruel one. Douglas uses words such as “violence,” “angry,” and “fury” to make the reader feel the depravity caused by such a terrible system. The reader realizes the anger that the slave system insights in wonderful people such as Mrs. Auld, and acknowledge the dishonesty of such an institution. It takes beautiful people and turns them into terrible vectors for its vile gain. Slavery damages the individual, inasmuch as it insights them with a vicious rage. It causes them to insight this pain in others. Slavery is a self reciprocating wheel of torment and anger. That is what Douglas uses these words to do; make the reader feel the pain and hate slavery causes in an individual. Furthermore, Douglas makes the reader feel the desperate pain that he felt when he was a slave. Using words such as, “wretched,” “tormented,” “distressed,” and “gloomy” to describe his enlightened state in slavery, he forces the reader to feel his pain. Douglas was stuck as a slave seeking enlightenment, which was a terrible position to be in; he was forced to accumulate knowledge in secret. Douglas was then stuck with this knowledge and a want for it in a situation that the could not utilize it. This would truly cause any human rage and hate, damage their soul, scaring them. Douglas’s use of these words cause the reader
Protagonists are like the tricksters of the jungle, the margays. Margays imitate baby monkeys, tinamous and agoutis. Then when the adults of the species go to investigate the cries, they are attacked by the margay. Protagonists may not devour their prey, but they are cunning and deceptive. On the outside they look like the hero of the story, but on the inside they are evil. This was supported by the books of prose, The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Scarlet Letter took place before The Crucible, but in both of the settings the townspeople were religious worry warts who blamed witchcraft (a sin) for the their troubles. Both were Puritanical societies, meaning that enforcement of the laws was very strict, as sinning was generally taken very seriously back then. One sin that was found in both books was that of adultery. Adultery can be defined as essentially a sexual relationship between a married person and someone who is not their spouse. Adultery leads into the focus of this paper. John Proctor and Hester Prynne (the protagonists of The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter respectively) were bad influences because they were protagonists.
Slavery’s wicked nature turns slaveholders into monsters. Mrs. Auld, one of Douglass’ masters, had been ignorant of slavery before, but it did not take long for slavery to degrade her character, “Her face was made of heavenly smiles, and her voice of tranquil music… This kind of heart had but a short time to remain such…That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage; that voice, made all of sweet accord, changed to one of harsh and horrid discord; and that angelic face gave place to that of a demon” (Douglass 77-78). Before, Mrs. Auld treats Douglass like a human being with dignity. She teaches him how to read and teaches him the alphabet. However, her kind actions toward Douglass end after her husband scolds her for teaching Douglass the ABCs. He tells her that it is unlawful and unsafe to teach a slave because once a slave gains power, he becomes unmanageable and one step closer to freedom. As a result, she loses her previous view of slaves as human beings and turns into a beast—full of rage, menace, capriciousness, and impatience. Joyce Nower agrees with this idea ...
""The Art of Cruelty"" The New York Times Book Review, 31 July 2011. Web. 27 Nov. 2011.
The story “Royal Beatings” is a beautiful representation of a young girl’s view of the world around her. Munro uses vivid details to create a story and characters that feel real. She draws the reader in and allows the reader to understand Rose through her poignant words about her life. Then, in the end, enables the reader to make the connections that Rose perhaps misses. “Royal Beatings” is not about any particular moment in Rose’s life or any certain action related to the reader. The story is, in fact, not about plot at all. It is instead about creating characters with a sense of verisimilitude and humanity while revealing “all their helplessness and rage and rancor.”
As much as society does not want to admit, violence serves as a form of entertainment. In media today, violence typically has no meaning. Literature, movies, and music, saturated with violence, enter the homes of millions everyday. On the other hand, in Beloved, a novel by Toni Morrison, violence contributes greatly to the overall work. The story takes place during the age of the enslavement of African-Americans for rural labor in plantations. Sethe, the proud and noble protagonist, has suffered a great deal at the hand of schoolteacher. The unfortunate and seemingly inevitable events that occur in her life, fraught with violence and heartache, tug at the reader’s heart-strings. The wrongdoings Sethe endures are significant to the meaning of the novel.
Even though the evil characters are also dead, they deserve the punishment upon them. The death of these virtuous characters exemplifies that the presence of a “just and involved God” does not exist in a world where “nothing really matters” (Hermesmann, 4). The character’s actions in both works prove futile because tragedy transpires upon them; Cordelia and Antigone lose their life, Lear his kingdom and family, and Gloucester loses his sight. This human cruelty contributes to the scrutiny of an unjust world.
In the short story “Poison” by Roald Dahl, the author's expressive style was successful in emanating an impact by using a visual setting that puts the audience in the place of the character, suspense that keeps the reader on edge, and imagery that draws the attention of the reader by using vivid word choice. Readers saw how he used description to specify the setting. Likewise, the author made the audience feel as if they were right there in the story. Along with the use of uncertainty, he used suspense to make the reader have a sense of worry or tension. Lastly, Roald Dahl used imagery, one of the greatest elements, to express that visual feeling in the story. Making the reader know additional information that could help along the story. Given