The Poisonwood Bible is a novel written by Barbara Kingsolver, portraying the life of the Price family, coming from Georgia to the Congo as a missionary family. By analyzing the cultural arrogance Kingsolver includes in the novel, it is possible to understand the many compositions the bring books, in relation to how the people live in comparison to different geographical and economical locations of the country, why certain things are necessary to happen and the relation of nature and man. Analyzing the cultural arrogance allows the readers to understand the two major perspectives in the book, and how they interact with each other.
The cultural arrogance found in this book is the driving force of any and all conflicts in the book, because it is the cause of conflict between nations, between the people in these nations, and last but not least, between the man and nature. Firstly, and more obviously, cultural arrogance will create a conflict between people of different nations. The Price family moves into Kilanga, a village in the middle of the Congo, thinking they know the most for coming from highly educated country. This means that this family alienates themselves from the rest of the village because of their way of thinking, avoiding any help from the neighbors, and judging their way of life, including their religion. As a missionary family, they went into Kilanga to try to convert the people there into Christianity. However, they failed their mission because they were unable to adapting their lives and way of thinking into the lives of the Congolese people, therefore they were unable to reach to them and teach them the “correct” way of living. This arrogance was in a much localized area, where it couldn’t affect many pe...
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...er, and the outcomes of this way of thinking in every corner of the story.
Works Cited
Kingsolver, B. (2005). The Poisonwood Bible: a novel. New York: Harper Perennial.
Nzongola-Ntalaja, Georges. "Patrice Lumumba: The Most Important Assassination of the 20th Century." The Guardian. N.p., 17 Jan. 2011. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. .
Wallerstein, Immanuel, and Dennis D. Cordell. "Patrice Lumumba (Congolese Politician)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. .
Eley, Tom. "World Socialist Web Site." Fifty Years since the Murder of Patrice Lumumba. N.p., 22 Jan. 2011. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. .
Nathan Price is the epitome of opposition in regard to cultural ignorance and global injustice. When Anatole is first introduced, he is invited to dinner with the Price family. At dinner Anatole tries to explain to Reverend Price that “Tata Ndu is concerned about the moral decline of his village”(127) because of the introduction of Christianity that is causing many Congolese to disregard their traditional religious duties. Anatole also tells Nathan that the villagers are carefully watching to see whether the Price’s god is capable of bringing them better luck than their local gods. In trying to explain this situation to Nathan, Anatole explains that most, if not all, of the congregation present in the Reverend’s church are known as “the lenzuka”(128). These are the people who have either shamed themselves or have had very bad luck. Such bad luck in fact, that many of the peo...
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is a work of historical fiction. The novel is based the Congo in 1959, while it was still under Belgian control. Nathan Price is a southern Baptist preacher from Bethlehem, Georgia who uproots his family, consisting of wife and three daughters, and takes them on a mission trip to Kilanga. Orleanna Price, Nathan’s wife, narrates the beginning of each book within the novel. Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May rotate the narration throughout each book. Rachel is the oldest Price child, and high materialistic. She refuses to accept the ways of the Congo, believing that she is better than everyone simply because of where she had her start in life. Leah is the next oldest, and she is a self-proclaimed tomboy. She likes to climb trees and practically worships at the feet of her father. Adah is the handicapped one, with a physical deformity. However, this deformity does not limit her, instead making her the smartest of the Price girls. Ruth May is the baby of the family, and has not yet lost the childhood innocence that she views the world with. Barbara Kingsolver uses a very interesting narrative style in the novel, switching between four narrators between the ages of five and fifteen, who are all female. Kingsolver's use of multiple narrative perspectives serve to amplify life in the Congo during the early 1960s through characterization, religion, and politics.
Imperialism has been a constant oppressive force upon societies dating back hundreds of years. Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, illustrates this oppression by providing an instance of its occurrence in the Congo of Africa, while simultaneously setting the stage for The Poisonwood Bible, which is essentially the continuation of the story. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, demonstrates how the Congo is still affected by modern circumstances and ideology. Conrad’s novella acts as a sort of precursor to the events later depicted in Kingsolver’s novel, and this very connection between the stories illustrates the perpetual oppression of imperialism. This oppression is shown through the characterization of the pivotal characters of each respective text.
Wagner-Martin, Linda. “The Novelist”. Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible”. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group INC, 2001. 7-19. Print.
Barbara Kingsolver is the author of many well-written pieces of literature including The Poisonwood Bible. This novel explores the beauty and hardships that exist in the Belgian Congo in 1959. Told by the wife and four daughters of a fierce Baptist, Nathan Price, Kingsolver clearly captures the realities this family and mission went through during their move to the Congo. The four daughters were raised in Atlanta Georgia in the 1950’s therefore entering the Congo with preconceived racial beliefs, and a very different way of life than they would soon experience. Throughout The Poisonwood Bible Kingsolver explores the importance and impact of faith, and a religion based on your own private beliefs.
The idea of language is rarely addressed in classic literature. This makes Kingsolver’s novel all the more valuable in the literary realm. Language is not the main focus of this novel, though. Therefore, the reader must look much, much closer at this issue. Close reading leads to a better understanding of each and every message and theme in Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible.
One can easily note the physical and sexual violence brought upon the people (black and white) of Congo after independence, but we must locate the other forms of violence in order to bring the entire story of Patrice Lumumba to light. The director’s attempt at bringing the story of Patrice Lumumba to the “silver screen” had political intentions.
In the novel, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, the character Leah Price’s psychological and moral traits were shaped by her psychical and geographical surroundings. The African Congo impacts Leah in ways only one could imagine. Leah’s character sifts through life hanging by the seam of others coat tails until she examines herself from the inside out and no longer lives through others but now lives for herself.
By forming the International African Association, King Leopold II took one step forward. He succeeded in convincing his would be competitors that his intention in the Congo was completely selfless. Although the International African Association met the following year, as per agreement, the ...
The Congo appears to be like another character through the embodiment of ants, vegetation, green mambas, other wildlife, and through life and death, which represents the jungles nature. In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, The Poisonwood Bible, the setting is alive with a heartbeat, and the citizens and animals who inhabit the Congo seem to amplify the pulse. At first glance, the Congo appears to the Price girls to be an area filled with numerous animals and insects. The foreign nation is an unpleasant place compared to their homeland, America, where it is clean and secure. However, the longer they stay in the Congo, the more the place grows on them. The land becomes a piece of them just as they become citizens of the land.
Patrice Lumumba was born in the Kasai Province of the Belgian Congo on July 2, 1925 as a member of the Batetela tribe, and received his primary education from a Catholic mission school. At age 18, Lumumba moved to Kindu and became a corporate clerk. After moving to Leopoldville for vocational school, he moved to Stanleyville to work as a postal clerk (Lemarchand 199). It was in Stanleyville that Lumumba began his political career, and according to Crawford Young, he had become “president or secretary of no less than seven associations in Stanleyville in 1953” (295). Lumumba’s involvement in these organizations also had a strong impact, he increased membership in the Association des Evolués de Stanleyville from 162 to over 1,000 members in four years, and was “regarded as the most eminent spokesman of Liberal ideas” by 1959 (Lemarchand 202). Lumumba’s public presence was not limited to his political organizations, he was also the editor of L’Echo Postal, and often wrote about the “problems of racial, social, and economic discrimination” in three other newspapers (Lemarchand 199)...
"We are supposed to be calling the shots here, but it doesn't look to me like we're in charge of anything, not ever our own selves." This quote reveals Prices inability to convert the Kilanga through his astringent witnessing techniques. It was Price’s intent as a missionary to lead the masses to God. In the end, it was his stubbornness and unwillingness to change that caused him to lose his family. It also resulted in him losing his life after being attacked by angry villagers who blamed him for the deaths of their children in the river. His efforts in leading the village to Christ ended up to be what turned everyone away.
The novel The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver depicts religion in an aberrant way. Nathan Price is a character from the novel who is married to Orleanna Price and is the father of Leah, Adah, Rachel, and Ruth May. Nathan Price is a preacher from Georgia in the United States and decides upon himself to take his family to the Congo on a mission. Thus leaving the family with no option to stay or go, already revealing the tension between the family and presenting their character relations. In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Poisonwood Bible she uses characterization, character motives, and the theme of repetition to convey her interpretation of religion.
Over the course of human history, many believe that the “Congo Free State”, which lasted from the 1880s to the early 1900s, was one of the worst colonial states in the age of Imperialism and was one of the worst humanitarian disasters over time. Brutal methods of collecting rubber, which led to the deaths of countless Africans along with Europeans, as well as a lack of concern from the Belgian government aside from the King, combined to create the most potent example of the evils of colonialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century’s. The Congo colonial experience, first as the Congo Free State then later as Belgian Congo, was harmful to that region of Africa both then and now because of the lack of Belgian and International attention on the colony except for short times, the widespread economic exploitation of the rubber resources of the region, and the brutal mistreatment and near-genocide of the Congolese by those in charge of rubber collecting.
Over a period from 1960-1965, the first Republic of the Congo experienced a period of serious crisis. There was a terrible war for power that displayed senseless violence and the desperation to rule. There were many internal conflicts among the people. The country eventually gained independence from Belgium. For many countries this would be a time for celebration. Unfortunately for the people of the Congo this became a time to forget. Almost immediately after independence and the general elections, the country went into civil war. Major developed cities like Katanga and Kasai wanted to be independent from the Lumumba government. Different factions started to fight the government and Katanga and Kasai tried to secede from the rest of the country out of fear of the mutinous army that was out of control looting and killing.