The Poisonwood Bible by Nathan Price

745 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Features of post colonial theory in literature

The Poisonwood Bible is a book about a man named Nathan Price who takes his wife and four daughters on a mission into the Congo. All of their ups and downs are documented throughout the story. This novel was written by Barbara Kingsolver in 1998. This story was inspired from her own personal trip that her father took her on, to the Congo, where they lived without and water, electricity, and many other necessities. During the time period that this book was being written, a lot of feminist and post-colonial literature was being acknowledged. Feminist literature is both nonfiction and fiction that supports women by defending political, economic and social rights for women. Many works of feminist literature depict strong willed women who stand up for themselves and work their way into having equal rights with men. The Poisonwood Bible shows feminist literature characteristics by being narrated through the perspective of all females, portraying the women as the more hardworking figures, and by defending equal rights for women.
A feminist characteristic of this novel is that it is narrated through the voices of five women and no men. If Nathan had narrated the story, it may have shown all the great things he did with the Africans and all of his amazing experiences. With the female perspective, a violent man is shown whom puts his family in a lot of danger and the way that the girls really perceive men is displayed. The story reads, “Women are expected to wear just one style of garment and no other. But the men, now that is a course of different color” (44). By this, Rachel is explaining how the men in the Congo get to wear whatever they want to wear, whereas the women are segregated and made to wear the same thing every single day. ...

... middle of paper ...

... girl. These boys are not accustomed to obeying their own grandmothers. If long division is really so important to a young man’s success in the world, how could a pretty girl know anything about it? That is what they are thinking” (280). Afterwards, Leah goes on teaching with a strong front and demands respect from the boys because there is nothing wrong with a woman knowing more than a man. Through both of these examples, Leah is defending her rights as a woman and making sure that nothing holds her back from being equal to a man.
The Poisonwood Bible displays many characteristics or feminist writing. Kingsolver uses narrating as a strong front in the story by having it done by all females. She displays the women as the more dominant figures who can be independent and also has the characters stand up for their rights as women who deserve the same rights as men.

Show More
Related

  • Nathan Price: The Poisonwood Bible

    683 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Narrative In The Poisonwood Bible

    1401 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Kingsolver’s Portrayal of Christianity in The Poisonwood Bible

    3070 Words  | 7 Pages

    no voice of his own, but all accounts affirm to the reader that he is

    Read More

  • Exploring Homosexual Identity Crisis in 1960s Society

    1504 Words  | 4 Pages

    Society has lead to the inevitable idea of gender roles in not only relationships, but also in everyday life situations. In the upcoming quote, Hella states, ' 'But if a particular man is ever at the mercy of a particular woman—why, he 's somehow stopped being a man. And the lady, then, is more neatly trapped than ever ' ' (125). She explains to David the principle that a woman simply cannot be woman without a man. A woman without a man is destabilizing, since she cannot be given the opportunity of motherhood or of tending to her husband which is a lifestyle greatly defining the 1960s. This is also seen at the beginning of the book, when it is stated that his aunt Ellen moves in with David and his father, after the loss of his mother. Ellen lacking the presence of a man in her life, and the lack of a motherly presence in a house of two males was destabilizing for them all, demonstrating a great importance of gender roles in a family. Therefore, since Ellen moved in with her brother and her nephew, it gave her the opportunity to be a woman; to tend to the needs of a man in this case her brother, and also to the needs of a child, thus offering her a source of stability. Men being essential in a woman 's life is also seen towards the

    Read More

  • Strong Poison By Dorothy Sayers Sparknotes

    1494 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women in fiction, according to Woolf, are very intellectual and independent. We see this reflect greatly in Harriet Vane in Sayers’s Strong Poison. Harriet is very intellectual as she is a well-established writer within the Bloomsbury group and shows her independence throughout the entirety of the novel. However, this was not the case for women in real life during the time of Virginia Woolf’s documentary. Women could hardly read or write and were considered as property of their husband, removing and individuality that they might have.

    Read More

  • The Influence of Gender in "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid

    672 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fisher, Jerilyn, and Ellen S. Silber. Women in Literature: Reading Through the Lens of Gender. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2003. Print.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Jamaica Kincaid's 'Girl'

    1010 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the short story, “Girl,” the narrator describes certain tasks a woman should be responsible for based on the narrator’s culture, time period, and social standing. This story also reflects the coming of age of this girl, her transition into a lady, and shows the age gap between the mother and the daughter. The mother has certain beliefs that she is trying to pass to her daughter for her well-being, but the daughter is confused by this regimented life style. The author, Jamaica Kincaid, uses various tones to show a second person point of view and repetition to demonstrate what these responsibilities felt like, how she had to behave based on her social standing, and how to follow traditional customs.

    Read More

  • Bande De Filles Analysis

    1531 Words  | 4 Pages

    Power, especially in the hands of females, can be a force for immense societal changes. Director Sciamma plays with the role of power in the lives of the four girls, predominantly in the character of Lady. Lady’s sense of control, stems from winning hand on hand fights, but the opinion of the men around her lays the foundation of this empowerment. The more fights Lady wins, the more the men appear to respect her, yet as feminist Simone de Beauvoir explains “[n]o matter how kindly, how equally men treated me when I tried to participate in politics, when it came right down to it, they had more rights, so they had more power than I did (Simone de Beauvoir - The Second Sex- ix),” the “power” Lady obtained was provisional. Lady’s power was directly tied to the opinion of the men around her, in this scene, a portion of the boys sits on stairs physically higher than Lady, invoking a sense of power hierarchy and control. The boys only valued Lady when she successfully participated in the their world of violence, but this participation came with boundaries as “[w]omen can never become fully socialized into patriarchy- which in turn causes man to fear women and leads then, on the one hand, to establish very strict boundaries between their own sex and the female sex (Feminist theory 142).” The men had never truly incorporated Lady into their group, she had just

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Harriet Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

    1019 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the author subjects the reader to a dystopian slave narrative based on a true story of a woman’s struggle for self-identity, self-preservation and freedom. This non-fictional personal account chronicles the journey of Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) life of servitude and degradation in the state of North Carolina to the shackle-free promise land of liberty in the North. The reoccurring theme throughout that I strive to exploit is how the women’s sphere, known as the Cult of True Womanhood (Domesticity), is a corrupt concept that is full of white bias and privilege that has been compromised by the harsh oppression of slavery’s racial barrier. Women and the female race are falling for man’s

    Read More

  • A Fight For All Women By Harriet Jacobs

    1461 Words  | 3 Pages

    Harriet Jacobs’ feminist approach to her autobiographical narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl brought to life the bondage placed on women, in particular enslaved black women, during the nineteenth-century America. In an effort to raise awareness about the conditions of enslaved women and to promote the cause of abolition, Jacobs decided to have her personal story of sexual exploitation and escape published. The author’s slave narrative focuses on the experiences of women, the treatment of sexual exploitation, its importance on family life and maternal principles, and its appeal to white, female readers. Likewise, through the use of the Feminist/Gender Theory, issues relating to gender and sexuality can be applied to the author’s slave narrative. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and its lack of reception during its own time disclose the strict boundaries and unique challenges Harriet Jacobs encountered and overcame as a woman in antebellum America.

    Read More

  • The Female Role in A Rose for Emily, Miss Brill, and The Storm

    1167 Words  | 3 Pages

    Reading literature, at first, might seem like simple stories. However, in works like William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily,” Katherine Mansfield's “Miss Brill,” and Kate Chopin's “The Storm,” the female protagonists are examples of how society has oppressive expectations of women simply because of their gender.

    Read More

  • Essay On The Poisonwood Bible

    520 Words  | 2 Pages

    Inquiry Contract Research Essay The Poisonwood Bible took place in the Congo during the 1960’s, which was a time of political unrest for the Congolese. The Congo gained their independence from the Belgians in 1960, and elected their first Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba. Lumumba wanted complete control of the country, including it’s natural resources, of which the United States had “gained strategic stake in” (Nzongola-Ntalaja) because it included uranium mines. At this time, America was in the midst of the Cold War with the USSR, so the control of these mines for America was critical, especially because they believed Lumumba was siding with the Soviets.

    Read More

  • Feminism in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    In conclusion, most of the female character are often isolated, victimized and ultimately killed by the male characters. Furthermore, it is rather ironic how Mary Shelly, the daughter Mary Wollestonecraft who wrote the Vindication of the Right of Women chooses to portray women. In this novel, the female characters are the exact opposite of the male characters; they are passive, weak and extremely limited. Mary Shelly repeatedly shows women in a victimized position exhibiting to the audience how things should not be. In conclusion, Mary Shelly’s novel is a reflection of how women were treated in the 1800’s.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Written At The Close Of Spring By Charlotte Smith

    1578 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout literature’s history, female authors have been hardly recognized for their groundbreaking and eye-opening accounts of what it means to be a woman of society. In most cases of early literature, women are portrayed as weak and unintelligent characters who rely solely on their male counterparts. Also during this time period, it would be shocking to have women character in some stories, especially since their purpose is only secondary to that of the male protagonist. But, in the late 17th to early 18th century, a crop of courageous women began publishing their works, beginning the literary feminist movement. Together, Aphra Behn, Charlotte Smith, Fanny Burney, and Mary Wollstonecraft challenge the status quo of what it means to be a

    Read More

  • Violence In Toni Morrison's Authoritarianism Of Women

    1200 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the book, women have been given the ability to amass power and threaten the authoritarianism of men. On the other hand, the story revolves around the era of civil right. People are oppressed and threatened because of what they believe during this period. It is in the same process that the woman transforms into the victim and oppressed. It is through violence that the women undergo repression from men. In the same moment, it can be identified that the black community starts fighting for equality in the black community that became patriarchal (Shreerekha et al. 34). Throughout the

    Read More

More about The Poisonwood Bible by Nathan Price

Open Document