The path of redemption and salvation presents itself with a different meaning for each character of The Poisonwood Bible. Their process of redeeming or deliverance from destruction shows itself in unique ways with all the characters. On a level it is the story of a family torn apart by the quest of “a man driven by guilt to save those unable to save themselves.” (Ender, Samantha) However after looking more closely at the characters within the family the realization that the children each represent multiple aspects of this “guilt driven man” and as the reader sees them change and grow the image of the changing points in his life. Barbara Kingsolver’s incorporation of multiple narrators provides more than enough evidence of the recurring themes of redemption and salvation while centrally focusing on the one person in the Price family who never speaks his story. In this paper, I will argue the personal salvation and redemption that Nathan Price struggles and ultimately fails to attain as he sets out into the Belgian Congo attempting to give them what he himself can never has, a chance.
The burden of guilt is something that everyone must overcome, but this is a burden that sometimes seems impossible to deal with. (Johnson, Kristina) As the story begins to unfold, the reader learns that Nathan is the only survivor of an expedition in war-torn Vietnam, and is attempting to “assuage his survivor’s guilt” by saving as many souls as he can. (Ergeton, Robin) He feels as though he is responsible for the death of his fallen comrades and should be punished for his life being spared due to an injury keeping him from losing his life. The only way for him to redeem himself for not dying like the rest of the soldiers is to save the souls of others...
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...olese. At some point his idea of redemption and what redemption actually is became two completely different things where his ideal is impossible to achieve.
Works Cited
Kingsolver, Barbara. The Poisonwood Bible. New York: Harpercollins, 1998. Print.
Ender, Samantha. "The Poisonwood Bible | Cultural Survival." The Poisonwood Bible | Cultural Survival. N.p., 26 Mar. 2010. Web. 13 Oct. 2012. .
"Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus." The Free Dictionary. Farlex, n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2012. .
Egerton, Robin. "A Literary Comparison: The Poisonwood Bible and The Historian." Suite101.com. N.p., 5 Aug. 2011. Web. 2 Nov. 2012.
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.
Carson, D. A. New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition. 4th ed. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994.
In “The Poisonwood Bible,” Barbara Kingsolver illuminates on how a rift from one’s homeland and family can simultaneously bring agonizing isolation and an eye opening perspective on life through Leah Price’s character development. As a child exiled away to a foreign country, Leah faces the dysfunction and selfishness of her family that not only separates them from the Congolese, but from each other while she also learns to objectify against tyrants and embrace a new culture.
In Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, Anatole proclaims that “there are more words in the world than no or yes” (310). He truly shows his wisdom by fully accepting that there is always something that can be more deeply understood. Anatole understands that accepting a new culture requires an effort to understand the differences and that is something that he truly proves to the Price family. Anatole grew up in the Congo with the culture that the Price girls find so strange. When the Prices start living in the Congo, Anatole starts to translate Nathan’s sermons. Once Anatole begins translating the sermons he sees Nathan’s and his family’s intolerance. Throughout the novel, this statement is demonstrated and is disregarded by many characters in many different situations and it completely illuminates the themes of cultural ignorance and global justice.
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.
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.
To begin with, the dual narratives of the text here present a unique mixture of chronology and perspective. Moreover, noteworthy is also McBride’s usage of the rhetorical strategy of alternate chapters and parallelism. This can be seen when McBride remarkably places related chapters together to juxtapose the life of his mother and that of himself. This allows one to observe the parallelism in the two lives; and perhaps more importantly, understand the significance Ruth’s life has had on McBride. For example, McBride places the chapters “Shul” and “School” next to each other. Here, both Ruth and James are struggling and are trying to fit in but are rejected due to racial and social conflicts. Another example is, “The New Testament” and “The Old Testament.” Both of these chapters revolve around the embarrassment Ruth and James feel for their circumstances. In “The Ne...
McKane, William. “Poison, Trial by Ordeal, and the Cup of Wrath.” Vetus Testamentum. Vol. XXX (1980).
New International Version. [Colorado Springs]: Biblica, 2011. BibleGateway.com. Web. 3 Mar 2011. Accessed 22 April 2014.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, Augmented Third Edition, New Revised Standard Version, Indexed. New York: Oxford UP, 2007. Print
Damrosch, David, and David L. Pike, eds. "The Gospel According to Luke." The Longman Anothology of World Literature. Compact ed. New York: Pearson, 2008. 822-33. Print.
The actions of our ancestors precede us thus making it impossible to change the impact they imprint on our lives. Whether it be acts of heroics or conflict that lead to destruction, everyone is marked by their predecessors at birth. This is Leah Price’s burden. Leah, a character from the novel The Poisonwood Bible whose father seeks to revolutionize the Congo. From the first step off the plane his actions had already affected her reputation to the native people. At the beginning she accepts this status that is placed on her by her father and blindly follows his every step. She admires his ideal of justice of a white man civilizing the Congo and she steals from this. Her theory of justice ,the one of bringing the barbaric Congo on its knees
Metzger, B.M. & Coogan, M.D. “The Oxford Companion to the Bible”. Oxford University Press. New York, NY. (1993). P. 806-818.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible. Herbert G. May and Bruce M. Metzger, ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1957.
Saul Bellow is known as one of the most influential and important writers in the post World War II era and has won numerous awards for his work including the Pulitzer Prize, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Nobel Prize for literature. One of Bellow's famous short stories, "A Father-to-Be" follows a single day in the life of a young scientist, Rogin, who is starting to feel pressure from his fiancee, Joan, and the stress of marriage and possibly fatherhood. "The Gonzaga Manuscripts" is another short story of Bellows that is examined by many critics. The story tracks the expedition of an American scholar, Charles Feiler, who is in search for the works of a Spanish poet, Gonzaga. To find the poems would be an act of deliverance in Feiler's mind and he believes bringing that little part of Gonzaga to the world would be an act of hope the world needs.A final example of Bellow's short stories is "Looking for Mr. Green". The tale outlines the first day on the job for a relief check delivery man, George Grebe and his struggle in finding his first receiver in a Chicago ghetto. In Saul Bellow's critically acclaimed novella, Seize the Day, which includes three short stories, Bellow explores the central theme of the protagonist's fight against the unpredictable conflicts of life and the search for transcendence and truth.