A Study: The Poisonwood Bible

Kristy Huynh
January 7, 2014
Period 2
The Poisonwood Bible Independent Study

1. Choose a passage that contains striking imagery. Analyze the passage and explain the effect on the work as a whole.
“Clearing a rain forest to plant annuals is like stripping an animal first of its fur, then its skin. The land howls. Annual crops fly on a wing and a prayer. And even if you manage to get a harvest, why, you need roads to take it out! Take one trip overland here and you'll know forever that a road in the jungle is a sweet, flat, impossible dream. The soil falls apart. The earth melts into red gashes like the mouths of whales. Fungi and vines throw a blanket over the face of the dead land. It's simple, really. Central Africa is a rowdy society of flora and fauna that have managed to balance together on a trembling geologic plate for ten million years: when you clear off part of the plate, the whole slides into ruin… To be here without doing everything wrong requires a new agriculture, a new sort of planning, a new religion” (524-525).
Adah acknowledges what her father has done wrong and his inability to realizes his faults. The African land that the family has set food on cannot change according to their desires and attempting to do so only damages it more. Kingsolver illustrates that many do not seem to realize the impact of going into a country and asking them to change their religion, way of developing food, or their education system. Those attempting to colonize do not see the destruction that they are doing. Africa to Adah has been born like this, and “ have managed to balance together on a trembling geological plate for ten million years.” This shows that balance has already been achieved in the views of the Africans and livin...

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... ridiculous to Anatole that we have fruits and vegetables that are grown somewhere else and then driven miles and miles to the supermarket. The clash of the two cultures makes me wonder if the “American” way is better. It is pretty ridiculous that people can’t grow their own food and only rely on the labor of others.
Although I appreciate and enjoyed reading about a world in which I have no experience, the imagery in the book was more than enough to show me that I would not survive a day living in Africa. Kingsolver’s vivid imagery and attention to detail hooked me the first few pages. (Like how the family wanted to bring the Better Crocker cake mix). The different detail from each of the Price sisters presents Africa and allowed me to piece it together. I was also able to identify myself with each of the sisters. I see myself as Rachel, Adah, Leah, and Ruth May.