In the novel The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, Nathan Price takes his wife and four daughters to the Congo to spread Christianity. When the Price family arrives in the Congo, they are the only American family there, and there are few people who speak English. The family feels out of place and unprepared to live in the drastically different village. Rachel is the character that feels cut off from home the most. Rachel’s experience with exile is very hard on her, but in the end, it has a positive impact on her life. Rachel is the oldest daughter in the Price family, she is fifteen when the family first arrives. Rachel is a beautiful girl, and pretty much all she cares about is how she looks. As soon as she stepped foot in the Congo,
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.
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.
When Rachel first arrives in Portland, she is a shy, insecure, and is a lonely
Throughout the short story, the author repeats how Rachel wishes to be “one hundred and two instead of eleven, ten, nine, eight…” She wishes to be invincible, but she is not. Rachel understands that she is eleven but she knows she acquires the qualities of a three year old—crying. Furthermore, when shoving the red sweater through her sleeves and on the tip of her desk, Rachel feels careless in frustration. The author uses language to show how Rachel bottles up her anger because of her misconception and ignorance that she is just eleven with no memories wearing a red sweater that belonged to her
...sn’t happy living this famous life and that’d she be happier out of spotlight and living in as she would say the “real world” where she was free to be who she really is. By being a regular teenager, she knew that she would be able to make friends and feel comfortable with whom she was. She would find real friends who would actually care for her and people who she could really trust. Staying true to who you are should means living your life trying to please yourself and by becoming Rachel Rogers she was able to live effortlessly because there was no effort put trying to be someone she was not. She was able to finally be proud of who she was remember what a natural smile felt like. If she wasn’t able to stay true to herself she would of continued on living a miserable life and regretting the fact that there was a better one waiting for her outside the Hollywood world.
Rachel Ruysch was a Dutch-born in 1664 in The Hague in Netherland. Rachel came from a settled and wealthy family. Her grandfather was a painter that painting landscapes and battle front scenery. Her father a professor anatomy studied nature. He had a skill that he instilled in his daughter Rachel her Father influences her in praise her remarkable talent. Rachel likes to draw insects and flowers. The family lived on a resort called the Flower Canal. The beautiful of the location were breathless. Willem Van Aelst had an impact on Rachel career. Rachel painting different, several of painting, including flower studies, and woodland scenes. Ruysch were taught by Van Aelst on how to composing flower vase. Rachel would arrange flowers in any fashion
Rachel’s legacy is a still remaining story of her life for christ and her death which has had several books written about it. She won several awards after her death, and there was a foundation started in her honor called Rachel’s Challenge. It is devoted to showing kindness and is against bullying.
In “Eleven,” when Mrs.Price gave Rachel the sweater and she said she remembered Rachel wearing it she probably confused her with someone else. She also might find it hard to believe that it is Rachel's because Rachel is so persistent on getting rid of the sweater that Mrs.Price might think she is trying to leave the sweater at school.
In “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson,” Mary Rowlandson, a Puritan mother from Lancaster, Massachusetts, recounts the invasion of her town by Indians in 1676 during “King Philip’s War,” when the Indians attempted to regain their tribal lands. She describes the period of time where she is held under captivity by the Indians, and the dire circumstances under which she lives. During these terrible weeks, Mary Rowlandson deals with the death of her youngest child, the absence of her Christian family and friends, the terrible conditions that she must survive, and her struggle to maintain her faith in God. She also learns how to cope with the Indians amongst whom she lives, which causes her attitude towards them to undergo several changes. At first, she is utterly appalled by their lifestyle and actions, but as time passes she grows dependent upon them, and by the end of her captivity, she almost admires their ability to survive the harshest times with a very minimal amount of possessions and resources. Despite her growing awe of the Indian lifestyle, her attitude towards them always maintains a view that they are the “enemy.”
Children have the tendency to be shy and introverted, but the character Rachel from the short story “Eleven” reaches a whole new peak. Sandra Cisneros writes Rachel in such a way that even if the readers did not understand the main idea of the short story, they would understand that Rachel is a measley, little girl who has trouble standing up for herself due to her young age.
The Poisonwood Bible ultimately says that the reason humans tell stories is to allow them to evolve and grow by taking in different experiences. When Orleana says,“To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story” it presents the whole concepts of one’s life changes once they hear a certain story (385). When someone hears a powerful enough story, it can change their perception of their life and lead them down a different path. Adah is talking about her mom and says,“My life: what I stole from history and how I live with it” which establishes the concept that the past determines the present of life (492). Without the past, humans could not realize
Throughout the story, Rachel talks very deeply about her thoughts about being eleven, giving details about how she is feeling at the time which allows the reader insight into what kind of person she is. For example, Rachel often makes comparisons to other objects such as pennies in a tin can to herself which makes her into a character with more backstory.
Rachel was so surprised by what just came out of that nasty, stupid Mrs. Price. The astonished student
A Christian mother, who since her husband abandoned her tries to have her children pray for their economic situation. However Rachel begins to be a more spiritual girl, embracing her Christian faith. She started to become a rebel girl and to skip the rules to go out with her friends.
In the story, the author uses the red sweater as a representation of age and purposely has Rachel talk about age and how she wants to be older. Rachel is constantly mentioning her birthday and how she is only eleven years old. She believes that she is too young and still acts like a toddler at