Poisonwood Bible
Barbara Kingsolver is the author of many well-written pieces of literature including The Poisonwood Bible. This novel explores the beauty and hardships that exist in the Belgian Congo in 1959. Told by the wife and four daughters of a fierce Baptist, Nathan Price, Kingsolver clearly captures the realities this family and mission went through during their move to the Congo. The four daughters were raised in Atlanta Georgia in the 1950’s therefore entering the Congo with preconceived racial beliefs, and a very different way of life than they would soon experience. Throughout The Poisonwood Bible Kingsolver explores the importance and impact of faith, and a religion based on your own private beliefs.
Orleanna Price, the wife and mother, of this struggling family is a very honest woman, lacking some of the stronger religious background of which her husband possesses.
Orleanna, struggles with the hardships of daily life; toting and disinfecting the family's water, scrambling to make ends meet and trying to protect her family from the myriad terrors of the bush. Orleanna uses irony to describe the early days of her marriage. As she describes them, the days when there was still room for laughter in her husband's evangelical calling, before her pregnancies embarrassed him, before he returned from World War II a different man, a man who planned ''to save more souls than had perished on the road from Bataan.'' Her husband, Nathan Price, had escaped those miseries simply by luck, and knowing it curled his heart ''like a piece of hard shoe leather.'' As her husband continually preaches the good Lord’s word, she is faced with what seems to her to be the more important burdens of life, survival and keeping her family safe and sane. She doesn’t appear to have nearly so strong of a religious background as her husband would have hoped for her, however, throughout the novel it is made quite clear that she is in fact a better person than her husband could have ever hoped to be. Her daughter, Leah, captures her mothers religion very well when she says, “my father wears his faith like the bronze breastplate of God's foot soldiers, while our mother's is more like a good cloth coat with a secondhand fit.'' This quote is very true, as her father is the evangelical missionary leader who parades his religion around, as he craves for the reputation of being a ...
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... God by a different name, many different names actually, but all of them combined created the same image of what Nathan Price believed in, God. These people helped to show the different forms of which our God takes on, many cultures may appear to be non-believers but in reality each society’s God aims for the same goals.
As this novel is told entry by entry, narrated by the women of the family a clear picture of life in the Congo is very accurately represented as well as the influences of faith on each character. Leah clearly points out, “We've all ended up giving up body and soul to Africa, one way or another." Each of us, she adds, "got our heart buried in six feet of African dirt; we are all co-conspirators here." This is true of each and every character throughout the novel, as their faith is altered and influenced by the events within their stay in the Belgian Congo. Kingsolver presents to her reader many separate versions of faith, from Nathan’s forever devoted, to Orleanna’s incredibly subtle but morally strong. While reading the passages narrated by the women of the family it is realized, that without your own personal beliefs a life filled with success is unfathomable.
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.
Price is overly consumed and unrelenting in his attempt to baptize the villagers. Mama Tituba, the Price family’s help becomes enraged as she communicates to Price why the villagers are so fearful of being baptized...
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.
no voice of his own, but all accounts affirm to the reader that he is
...ke the other Puritans, Hope is able to follow her conscience and trust in her heart. When Nelema is imprisoned for her unorthodox method of healing of Cradock on Hope's behalf, Hope extricates Nelema from the authorities. After Magawisca is taken captive due to a promised rendezvous between Faith and Hope, Hope finds a way to rescue Magawisca from prison. Although Hope loves her sister and wishes to keep her home, she respects the sanctity of Faith's Christian bond with Oneco, albeit Catholic, and is happy for Faith when Oneco rescues her. Hope transcends the Puritan religion and embraces a universal religion, respecting others' differing relationships with God as holy. Hope, unlike her society, rejects strict adherence to religious tenets and follows her own heart.
The events of Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart and the film Sugar Cane Alley detail the lives of a fictionalized Nigerian village and sugar cane harvesters in remote Martinique, respectively, during similar time periods of the 1900s. Both works contain explicit references to Christianity, and how the imposition of religion and white culture have negatively affected the African characters. European religious practice was used as a means of pacifying as well as terrifying the Umuofian people and the inhabitants of Sugar Cane Valley.
Anzia uses the narrator Sarah, to tell the story of family who newly moved to America and is living in New York City. From Sarah’s narration, we can see the idea that some first-generation immigrants had a resistance to assimilating to American culture, whereas their children quickly became Americanized. Sarah describes her father Reb Smolinsky as the patriarch of the family, who is often accused of keeping his children only for their wages. By her father relying on his daughters to bring in money for the family, he can continue to practice Torah like he did in the old country. We can further see this resistance to assimilate by Sarah’s father when he says “Sell my religion for money? Become a false prophet to the Americanized Jews! No. My religion is not for sale” (111,cite). By Sarah’s father refusing to get a job and contributing to his families American Dream, it shows that he has no desire to assimilate to new American ideals. Reb Smolinsky becomes a representation of a generation that is so deeply rooted in the past and has no intention to move forward. Sarah and her sisters are the newer generation and their view of assimilation is clearly different. Sarah recognizes that her father is stubborn and his difference in ideas of how life is supposed to be when she states that “he was the old world. I was the New” (cite). Unlike her father, her sisters work to further themselves and fulfill the American Dream. Sarah engages in hard work and doesn’t want to beg on the street for food, instead she has the desire “to go into business like a person” and proves this when she buys herring to resell on the street and despite her little knowledge of business she ends up earning an unexpected twenty-five cents profit (21
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.
Similarly, the book’s three leading protagonists ultimately possess a common objective, escaping their unjust circumstances in pursuit of seeking the “warmth of other suns.” For this reason, they abandon the laws of Jim Crow and the familiarity of their hometowns as they flee to a better life. In the process, they all assume a level of risk in their decisions to rebel against the system. For example, Ida decides to embark on a precarious journey while in the beginning stages of a clandestine pregnancy. Any number of unpredictable events could have resulted from this judgment, including fatality. All of the migrants shared an unspoken agreement that the rewards would far outweigh the dangers involved.
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
In “A Long Way Gone”, we follow a twelve-year-old African boy, Ishmael Beah, who was in the midst, let alone survived a civil war in Sierra Leone, that turned his world upside down. Ishmael was a kind and innocent boy, who lived in a village where everybody knew each other and happiness was clearly vibrant amongst all the villagers. Throughout the novel, he describes the horrific scenes he encounters that would seem unreal and traumatizing to any reader. The main key to his survival is family, who swap out from being related to becoming non-blood related people who he journeys with and meets along his journey by chance.
By utilizing an unbiased stance in his novel, Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe promotes cultural relativity without forcibly steering his audience to a particular mindset. He presents the flaws of the Ibo tribe the same way he presents the assets—without either condescension or pride; he presents the cruelties of the colonizers the same way he presents their open mindedness—without either resentment or sympathy. Because of this balance, readers are able to view the characters as multifaceted human beings instead of simply heroes and victims. Achebe writes with such subtle impartiality that American audiences do not feel guilty for the cruel actions of the colonizers or disgusted by the shocking traditions of the tribesmen. The readers stop differentiating the characters as either “tribesmen” or “colonizers”. They see them simply as people, much like themselves. With this mindset, the audience starts to reflect upon their own cultural weaknesses. Conversely, the colonizers forcefully declare their religion onto the tribesmen instead of neutrally presenting their beliefs. Achebe prevails over his anger to present his opinion without forcefulness and with open-minded consideration. Yes, the colonizers succeed in converting many tribesmen into Christians; however, their success is subjective because they destroy African culture in the process. Ultimately, Achebe is successful in delivering his political views, but he does so by encouraging open-mindedness and cultural relativity instead of forcing his individual ideals upon his readers.
"the novel...is more than the tale of one individual's life, touching and riveting as this aspect is, it is a microcosm of a community, an image of a "tribe" invented through the imagination of its storyteller."
She can now see why her father was an advocate for the Christian religion. What Nathan Price in a twisted shape of faith believes to be true is that “Tata Jesus” could save everyone from perishing, but what he could never fathom is that aside from religion there is so much more that needs to be done in this area. This is how Leah develops an understanding for the point of view of Tata Kuvudundu and the villagers, the white man should never have a place of authority or trustworthiness because his teachings are not culturally accepted. This is the exact scenario Blake references in The Poison Tree, “ I was angry with my foe; I told it not, my wrath did grow” These men never were accepting of one another and their beliefs, so there was no level of respect between the two. Leah sees the bigger picture that there is no time for a faith conversion when men and women do not have a voice and political efficacy. Their voice is taken from them in the snap of fingers by world powers, and that is where Leah contrast her family. She sees that change is what is inevitable, and if she must endure a life without to give a life of equality to others that is exactly what she will do. By replacing each uncertain footstep on the Congolese ground with a new understanding of what life is all about, Leah’s psychological traits shift and then re-introduced through the use of
One main theme which I believe that this book repeats is the idea that people will blindly follow long standing traditions simply because it is "expected." For instance, Tante Atie felt obligated to care of her mother. This was the tradition for the oldest women of the family, in Haiti. Tante Atie was obviousely resentful of this duty, but she felt that it was her obligation as a part of that family. Sophie's mother, on the other hand, was free from this tradition and able to move for New York. Sophie's mother was also tormented by the fact that her mother blindely followed the obligations taught to her. It is the tradition in Haiti, that by the time a girl hits puberty, she is to be ritualistically "tested" for her purity. These tests were obliviousely psychologically damaging for the girls, but no one ever questioned the tests. It was simply tradition. Sophie's mother was only saved from having this test done because she was raped, which she names as being "the only good thing which came from my being raped." Tante Atie was said to have screamed in protest to this purity test. Yet, when Sophie came of age, her mother still preformed these tests on her out of tradition, even though she was aware of how mentally damaging these tests were on young women. I realize that every culture has its own traditions which seem strange to outside cultures. For instance, the book mentions a women from Ethiopia who is in Sex therapy because of the mutalating ritual which was performed on her by her elders. I just feel that when it comes to rituals and traditions such as these, it should not be a matter of whether it is a tradition or not, but whether it is morally and ethically exceptable. I do not understand how any mother could possibly do anything damaging or painful to their child. The books explaination for preserving the girls purity is so that when the girl marries, her family can save face by having the daughter be pure. I feel that these tests only make it extremely clear to the young women that they are not trusted to do the right thing or to tell the