The Poisonwood Bible Analysis

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The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver practically oozes with guilt and it is no wonder that a major theme in the book is how each person deals with the guilt. Nathan still holds on to his guilt from his time in the military. The Price family guilt over the death of a daughter and a sister. They also hold a public guilt of how they played into Africa’s tragedies. The novel tells how each character deals with this burden and offers five ways out of infinity to deal with guilt. In Nathan Price’s military experience, he escapes the Death March during the war while his unit dies. He then fears that God is constantly judging him as God is always watching. He feels that he must avenge his unit and appease God by saving more lives than the ones that were lost from his unit. While he is in the Congo, he tries to convert the Africans on numerous occasions to Christianity in an attempt to satisfy his goal. The sisters were there when Ruth was bit by the snake and died. They felt it was their fault that she had been bitten, while Orleanna felt horrible for allowing her family to stay in such a toxic place where she had a feeling that something, like the death of one of her children, was going to happen. Nathan, though he seems unaffected by his youngest daughter’s death, may have felt torn by her loss of life. …show more content…

Nathan Price tries to come in and change that. The natives of the Congo want no part in this. They are happy with their religion as it stands and there is no reason for a change. Also, the United States government, Eisenhower, plans to overthrow Congo’s president. Adah in particular is flabbergasted that a place she calls home and a man she trusts would do something so horrible. This guilt reflects how many Americans feel over the tragedies and destruction caused by American interference—that is not to say that other countries do not feel bad for the things that they have

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