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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... ... middle of paper ... ... 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.
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.
Since its 1998 publication, The Poisonwood Bible has primarily been seen as a statement against American exceptionalism. Upon analyzing the novel it is obvious that subjects such as imperialism, religion, the burden of guilt, and the use of, or lack thereof, voices, contribute to multiple points and themes found in the novel. In Susan Strehle’s current article on American exceptionalism explicitly relating to The Poisonwood Bible, she manipulates the topics and themes found in the novel to support her opinion. Unlike Strehle’s one-sided view, multiple themes and motifs in The Poisonwood Bible combine to form a complex and involved plot, further developed by the use of symbolism and both internal and external conflicts of the characters.
Surroundings have a major affect on humans. It can change who they are right down to the core. If a person puts themselves in a positive environment, they are more likely to be positive, while the opposite happens when placed in a negative environment. While the changes in the person might not be immediate over time the person will adjust to their surroundings. This was accurate in the case of The Poisonwood Bible. While not all of the characters experienced significant change, all of the main characters changed as the story progressed. The longer that she remained in that situation, Leah Price gradually became more and more different than she was in her previous surrounding.
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.
In The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, the romantic standards that are associated with literature during the American Renaissance are evident. This popular novel, a New York Times Bestseller, embodies the concept of Romanticism with its gothic darkness, themes of loss and nostalgia, and a strong captivity narrative. The presence of a wise child and recurring double language are essential to the plot of the story. Nathan Price's misguided mission to save souls in the Congo is transformed into an evil that invades a type of Paradise and so, the reader realizes immediately that this twisted attempt to Christianize the savages will result in a fall of epic proportions. The impending fall and the results are set against a backdrop of revolution and oppression and the Gothic element permeates the narrative as well as the lives of characters throughout The Poisonwood Bible. If analogy and metaphor are the standard trope of Romanticism, this book could serve as an encyclopedic text. Each page is packed with figurative language that transforms and mystifies while using romantic imagery that creates alternately a 'Paradise' and a 'Hell'. "There's a majesty, a 19th-century-novel echo to this sweeping vision of nature doing its thing independent of the human will" (Kerr 7). American Romanticism, as a pattern for successful literature, resounds throughout this modern text.
...mple of imagery is when Richard’s friends run up to him with his article in their hands and a baffled look on their faces. This shows that Richard is a very talented writer for his age and that Richard is a very ambitious person because his school never taught him to write the way he does. This also shows that Richard took it upon himself to become a talented author and wants to be a writer when he grows up.
This is a gripping novel about the problem of European colonialism in Africa. The story relates the cultural collision that occurs when Christian English missionaries arrive among the Ibos of Nigeria, bringing along their European ways of life and religion.
Write a paragraph discussing a passage that inspired you, made you think, or frustrated you,and how it did so. The paragraph should be between 160-300 words, and you should cite the page number of the passage.
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
I found the book to be easy, exciting reading because the story line was very realistic and easily relatable. This book flowed for me to a point when, at times, it was difficult to put down. Several scenes pleasantly caught me off guard and some were extremely hilarious, namely, the visit to Martha Oldcrow. I found myself really fond of the char...
...r, it is not entirely realistic in its portrayal of colonialism. Karen Dinesen wrote her story how she wanted to see it. I am sure her life was as she wrote it to be, but I do not think that she took in to account the treatment of the Africans. I do not think that she intended to write of those aspects of colonialism. In my opinion, she want to share with the world the greatness of Africa as she saw it. A Grain of Wheat was written to share with people the violence of the colonialism. The hardships endured by those colonized was meant to be brought out to the audience. These two pieces of literature were written for different reasons: one to show a wealthy white woman’s life in Africa as she saw it, and the other to show the violence brought about by the colonization of Africa.
Piper’s use of imagery in this way gives the opportunity for the reader to experience “first hand” the power of words, and inspires the reader to be free from the fear of writing.
Locate an image, song, or other cultural artifact that might help us to better appreciate the text and its larger significance (what it means). Explain how your chosen image serves as a window into the text; go beyond plot summary and instead focus on how the image points us in the direction of analyzing
Another scene I particularly enjoyed was the scene in which a large cask of wine had dropped and broken in the street. Because many people had very little to eat or drink, a large crowd gathered around the dirty puddle and began drinking what they could of the spilled wine. This scene was very descriptive, explaining how the people tried to scoop up the wine in their hands, and how they soaked it up with handkerchiefs from women's heads and squeezed the wine into infants' mouths. Other people licked the stones in the street or sucked on the pieces of wood from the cask. This passage showed how unfortunate many of the people were, without actually saying that they were just poor. Specific words and phrases were used to effectively paint a vivid picture of the scene.
According to Richard Asare, “The West African sub region is host to the world’s main cocoa producing countries, including Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria” . Through progressive Conversion of forests into cocoa fields, these countries are undergoing major deforestation . Ghana in particular, underwent a substantial amount of biodiversity loss due to deforestation and land degradation, incurring an economic loss of approximately $54 billion . Further, Ghanaian forestlands are categorized into reserve and off reserve where an estimated 50 – 70% of the total reserve land was illegally encroached due to numerous factors such as agriculture, mining and timber extraction . In Ghana, 50% of total cocoa farm area is under mild shade while an average of 10% is ...