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.
Characterization of Nathan Price is a large part of Kingsolver’s depiction of life in the Congo in 1959. Nathan Price never actually narrates any part of the novel, but he does have dialogue. Price is characterized by both his wife and his daughters. Each of the girls has a different perspective on their father, as does Orleanna. Nathan P...
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...es under the Belgians, and in that way relates to Orleanna. However, Nathan Price serves as the main political allegory in the novel.
At first glance, The Poisonwood Bible is simply a story about a family from Georgia who gets taken on a mission trip to the Congo in Africa. After reading the entire novel and analyzing the text, it is apparent that Kingsolver used things like characterization, religious aspects, and a political allegory to convey what life was really like in the Congo in 1959. Nathan Price, though never actually given a voice, managed to become possibly the most important character, as well as the entire allegory. The multiple narrative perspectives added to the level of characterization, as well as an interesting twist on typical literature. Not to mention, all of the narrators were females, something that is very uncommon for historical fiction.
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.
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.
And probably the most influential person in the book, E.D. Morel. Morel, an employee of a Belgian company that handled shipments to the Congo, noticed that the shipments coming to and from the Congo seemed really suspicious. He put two and two together and realized what was happening. Morel was essentially the spring board of as Hochschild describes "The first Human rights campaign of the 20th century." I believe Hochschild tries to show his readers a holocaust that was going on in the African interior, how it was virtually unnoticed by the rest of the world and how easy it was to cover up. Hochschild also does a good job of showing how history somehow conceals the fact that it was going on. The book has many strengths I really enjoyed how he didn't try to portray everyone in the book as perfect including the protagonist some were conceited selfish etc.
In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, “The Poisonwood Bible”, Adah changes immensely. Over time from when Adah first arrived to the Congo with the rest of the Price family to when she is and adult, Adah changes physically, mentally and religiously. Throughout the course of the novel, Adah converts her old religious belief of not believing in God into a “religion of science”, bec
In Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, Anatole proclaims that “there are more words in the world than no or yes” (310). He truly shows his wisdom by fully accepting that there is always something that can be more deeply understood. Anatole understands that accepting a new culture requires an effort to understand the differences and that is something that he truly proves to the Price family. Anatole grew up in the Congo with the culture that the Price girls find so strange. When the Prices start living in the Congo, Anatole starts to translate Nathan’s sermons. Once Anatole begins translating the sermons he sees Nathan’s and his family’s intolerance. Throughout the novel, this statement is demonstrated and is disregarded by many characters in many different situations and it completely illuminates the themes of cultural ignorance and global justice.
The Poisonwood Bible is the story of an evangelical Baptist preacher named Nathan Price who uproots his wife and four daughters from the modern culture of America and moves them to the Kilanga Village in the Belgian Congo as missionaries. He is bullheaded and obstinate in all his ways. His approach is inflexible, unsympathetic, and unaccepting of the culture and customs of the people of Kilanga. Nathan Price exemplifies the words of Romans 2:4 that says, “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” He did not share the goodness of God, but sought to spread his uncompromising pious agenda. Instead of leading people to God he turned them away.
no voice of his own, but all accounts affirm to the reader that he is
Many would assume that this would be a very peaceful and joyous reunion for Price and his family, however, several new struggles ensue for him instead. This is due to him becoming so accustomed to spending his life in the war that he can no longer comprehend what purpose and identity he holds removed from it. Given the severe monotony he was subjected to during the war, Price has now become just as prompt in making decisions at home as on the battlefield by no longer taking the time to “think” before acting. In fact, Price’s own dog named Vicar serves as a symbol to represent Price’s “civilian” mindset, which repeatedly conflicts with his “war” mindset until it is no longer bearable. Therefore, Price is forced to kill Vicar as he can no longer manage his conflicting mindsets. The parallels drawn between the stories of Price and Vicar and Cross and Martha serve to suggest that even though one details the struggles of a soldier in the war, while the other elaborates on a soldier’s struggle removed from it, they both share the same consequence of having to put away their humanity in order to settle the dispute between conserving their identities as civilians, and remaining obligated to their duties in
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.
2nd ed. of the book. New York: St. James Press, 1995. Literature Resource Center -. Web.
“The King James Bible was 400 years old in 2011, and it remains one of the most favored translation used today” (“At 400, King James Bible still No. 1”). “Some statistics from a newspaper said, that out of the people polled thirty-one percent said the King James language was beautiful, and twenty-three percent said it was easy to remember” (“At 400, King James Bible still No. 1”). When the King James Bible was published in 1611 there were many ways it could have been improved. The King James Bible has had a huge impact on the world of today. The King James Bible was published by scholars that King James I gathered from 1604 to 1611. King James did this in order to create a
The Catholic religion, the most common practiced religion in the world, can be seen as a common setting for the origin of the Bible that is the oldest known book to this day. The Bible tells of many great stories of old that have been somewhat forgotten; In Gabriel Garcia Marquez's ,A Chronicle of a Death Foretold, biblical allusion are used throughout the novel which compares symbolisms and imagery to the Bible and Roman Catholic religion. The main focus of interest in the novel is the murder of Santiago Nasar which can be compared to the murder and acts against Jesus Christ. Acts and imagery of other actions taking place in the novel can be referred to the Bible of the Roman Catholic religion.
In addition, possibly the greatest burden of Linda 's life is that her children will become slaves. Harriet Jacobs writes, "There is a great difference between Christianity and religion at the south. If a man goes to the communion table, and pays money into the treasury of the church, no matter if it be the price of blood, he is called religious. If a pastor has offspring by a woman not by his wife, the church dismisses him, if she is a white woman; but if she is a colored, it does not hinder hiss continuing to be their good shepherd(8)." Pious slave owners were often the ones who beat, raped, and killed their slaves, but you would find them in the pew of church every Sunday. Many slave owners of that time used the Bible to justify slavery. Jacobs, whose grandmother was a God-faithful woman, understood the hypocrisy of the "pious" slave owners of the south. The people in the north did not understand the true atrocities of slavery. The novel was written to open their eyes to a "Christian" nation that so desperately needed the true love of
The story initially deals with the interactions of three characters: Basil Ransom, Olive Chancellor and Verena Tarrant. The character of Basil Ransom, a Mississippian who has fought in the Civil War on the side of the Confederates, is presented to us as head-strong, determined, full of honor and tough in his own masculinity and as someone who is aware of the world and the society which he lives in but of which he is not fully accepting. Olive Chancellor, (Basil Ransom’s cousin), a Bostonian woman, on the other hand is a hard-hearted woman who is bitter and is quite opposed to the traditional notions of women and men. She believes that the times of traditional feminine and masculine nature is in the past and that women are as equal as men in the changing future of society; she fights against the brutal nature of men with her rugged character in the narrative. The historical context of the story is the Civil War and its influence on the society of the day, Basil who lost everything in the war has to seek new employment and does not see eye to eye with the new ideals of r...
Rivers in this novel can also be a symbol for an escape. Weeks later, when Frederic hears from the barman about his expected arrest, he and Catherine escape for Switzerland by boat. They leave their old lives behind in search of a clean start in Swit...