Changes In The Poisonwood Bible

Whenever someone goes to a new place, they have to adapt to their surroundings and often times in causes changes in their behaviors. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, is a novel about a pastor who takes his family to the Belgian Congo on a mission to spread his Christianity beliefs to the Congolese. The mother and the four daughters taken to the Congo were all effected by the Congo environment which in turn lead to changes in the psychological and moral traits of these characters. The character that is affected the most by the environment she is in is Leah Price. She is effected by the Congolese culture and how they do things different from Americans. Kingsolver portrays these changes in the character to show how after one has a life-changing experiences, it may change the beliefs and views they had about everything. She …show more content…
She is now clearly able to notice the unfair treatment that the Congolese are given. When she goes with her father to go see Lumumba speak, she notices that the whites have nice houses whereas the Congolese “make their homes out of run-down shacks” (183). At this point, Leah is starting to drift away from her American background and starting to feel remorseful for the Congolese. She even states how people who think “the word ‘Congo’ makes people think of that big-lipped cannibal man in the cartoon…they’re just wrong about everything here from top to bottom” (235). Due to the surrounding she has been in for a while now, she is able to understand the Congolese lifestyle in more depth. Not only is she starting to realize that Congolese are barley given anything to survive, but also her faith in Christianity is starting to dwindle. Instead of fully believing that Jesus would help them no matter what, she now has doubt in him because she starts using phrase such as “Would Jesus protect us”