Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible

Amy Nguyen ENGL 1002 Paper #1 As humans, we grow up in a community of family and friends. They provide the learned values and direction that allows us to become functioning members of society who are able to help others and ourselves. It is the basis of society. Community presents itself as an interwoven network of various part and sub-parts, and every small action can create a ripple effect that may go unnoticed by those immediately surrounding it, but more clearly seen as the waves spread. In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, The Poisonwood Bible, a Baptist family is sent as missionaries to Africa. Readers are initially bombarded with the jarring difference between American life in the 1950’s to the lives of African villagers, but Kingsolver slowly …show more content…
Because of this new ability to reach those physically far from us, we should start thinking of community as the world that we live in rather than be confined to the idea of community as the street one grew on. In the 1990’s, a philosophical movement was started, claimed by supporters as neither left nor right wing politically, but rather “the perfect radical center” (Bell). In essence, the belief was that smaller communal bodies made the best moral judgments, rather than a larger governing body (Bell). At the forefront of the movement was an Israeli-American sociologist Amitai Etzioni, who saw extreme promise in community based day-care centers, clean-up groups, with an emphasis neighborhood watch programs. The community would be responsible for keeping themselves morally grounded, and to do so successfully, had to adhere to a commitment of shared values, traditions, and societal norms. As important as it is to be individualistic, one cannot take this so far as to disregard the potential effects of our actions. In Kingsolver’s example with the lemon, it is easy to realize the intricacies of today’s world and that humans survive by depending on one another. We should consider the impact of our actions locally and globally, whether it be through supporting local producers and buying sustainable products, or to boycotting large corporations who do not value the human rights of their factory workers abroad. Due to the …show more content…
Many large companies, such as Coco-Cola, have taken initiatives ensure their products are sustainable and not damaging to all customers, and even support charities that further their CSR goals, such as supporting protection of local water sources in the Mediterranean (Sepers). Companies have just as much of a responsibility do their part in the global community, and as humans who work in and support businesses, it is our duty as well to act consciously. As consumers and members of society, we need to take our role as a global citizen seriously. It is not to say that one should completely abandon the characteristics that make up our identity- our culture or ethnicities or political beliefs, but that in addition to this identity, we should be aware of an additional responsibility to our global neighbors. Besides trying to support companies that act responsibly, we also have an obligation to act our concerns as to what will affect to our planet as a whole, and to fight for values that affect our neighbors in Europe, Asia, and Africa just as they affect the local inter-cities of our country. As global citizens, we should individually be making efforts to eliminate boundaries between different countries and cultures to focus on human rights, gender equality, environmental consciousness and preservation, sustainable business development, and humanitarian assistance for all citizens of the world.