Pride In The Poisonwood Bible

In the novel, The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver expresses the theme of cultural arrogance many times throughout the book. Cultural arrogance is when you think your cultural background is better than others, and that everyone should follow your ways. You think that your lifestyle is the correct way to live and that you are better and superior than others. So, you don't feel the need to listen or do anything they say. In The Poisonwood Bible, the theme, cultural arrogance makes you controlling and self-absorbed. This is displayed when Nathan, the Reverend, scolds the Congolese that nakedness is the wrong way to go out in public, and then when Nathan doesn't listen to Mama Tataba when she was trying to teach him the right way to plant the Poisonwood tree, and

40) The act of conceit and snobbiness makes one arrogant. Nathan thinks that because he is a white man and a Reverend, he doesn't have to listen to his African servant, Mama Tataba. But, being the arrogant person Nathan is, he has low respect for Mama Tataba because, as mentioned before, she is an African servant who's poor, meaning if she was giving him legitimate advice on farming, she would have been rich in food and crops on her own and wouldn't have needed his support. This all leads to self-absorbent and control because Nathan thinks that all Africans are uneducated and ignorant people, so he doesn't trust or care for any of their judgement. Lastly, Nathan expresses cultural arrogance by trying to get the whole Congo community to get baptized in the river. During Easter Sunday, Nathan wanted to get people baptized because that's what his family and everyone back in America did on Easter Sunday. But, nobody wanted to step foot in the river because of an incident that happened a year ago. A little girl from the village got eaten by crocodiles and from then and now nobody lets their children step foot in