In The Poisonwood Bible, the most complex relationship between two characters is between Leah and her father Nathan Price. While the other characters see Nathan for who he is before they enter the Congo, Leah does not. Unable to interact directly with God, Leah transfers her religion onto her father. The figure of her earthly father becomes a stand-in for the figure of her heavenly father. As Leah’s faith in her father wanes, so does her faith in God. For Leah, her father embodies her religion.
Leah’s belief in God, as well as her belief in her own father, reach their highest points as the Prices leave Georgia for the Congo. While the Price women bring numerous supplies to the Congo underneath their clothes, Nathan Price “was bringing the Word …show more content…
When Nathan fails at planting the garden, failing to recognize the lack of pollinators in the Congo, Leah’s belief in her father begins to falter: “My father looked at me with a new face, strange and terrifying to me for what it lacked in confidence. It was as if a small, befuddled stranger were peering through the imposing mask of my father’s features” (80). The person Leah appears to see in this instance is her actual human father, who she is unable to transfer God onto in this instance because she sees him as flawed and frustrated. When she recognizes her father’s plan is wrong, she starts to realize “the sun was going down on many things I believed in” (80). Unable to view God and Nathan as different entities, Leah’s confusion in Nathan’s failure results in confusion in her faith in God. Seeing the continued failures of her parents in the Congo, she dreams of parents different from her own, parents who know how to cope in the Congo: “In spite of myself, I pictured a father with shiny black arms pulling fish from the river and a mother with dark, heavy breasts pounding manioc in a wooden trough” (225). Unlike the moment she compares her father to Christ, Leah immediately feels the urge to repent this thought except “I was unsure which commandment my thoughts had broken” (225). Leah takes an additional step of transferring her feelings of her father onto Ruth May, …show more content…
Upon the Price’s arrival, Leah claimed Nathan’s ability to compose himself during difficulties as her “what I admire most about Father” (41). When the primary trait for respecting her father turns out to be a lie, Leah not only loses her faith in Nathan, but, because she has transferred the identity of God onto her father, she loses her faith in God. When the ants flood Kilanga, Leah states that “God hates us” (308). Leah still believes in the existence of God, but she believes that she no longer falls into God’s graces. This sentiment coincides with Anatole instructing Leah not to “expect God’s protection in places beyond God’s dominion” (309). She also believed “Anatole was the one person who cared enough to help me,” while countering that “God didn’t,” directly referring to God as a “person” (308). By transferring God with her father, Leah sees her father’s inability to care about and provide for his family’s well-being as divine punishment. Leah sees her father in an entirely different light: “It was hard to believe I’d ever wanted to be near to him myself. If I had a prayer left in me, it was that this red-faced man shaking with rage would never lay a hand on me again” (333). Leah also abstains from voting, but claims, “I hadn’t voted, nor Mother either…But I guess we all made our choices, one way or the other”
Leah’s belief in God, as well as her belief in her own father, reach their highest points as the Prices leave Georgia for the Congo. While the Price women bring numerous supplies to the Congo underneath their clothes, Nathan Price “was bringing the Word …show more content…
When Nathan fails at planting the garden, failing to recognize the lack of pollinators in the Congo, Leah’s belief in her father begins to falter: “My father looked at me with a new face, strange and terrifying to me for what it lacked in confidence. It was as if a small, befuddled stranger were peering through the imposing mask of my father’s features” (80). The person Leah appears to see in this instance is her actual human father, who she is unable to transfer God onto in this instance because she sees him as flawed and frustrated. When she recognizes her father’s plan is wrong, she starts to realize “the sun was going down on many things I believed in” (80). Unable to view God and Nathan as different entities, Leah’s confusion in Nathan’s failure results in confusion in her faith in God. Seeing the continued failures of her parents in the Congo, she dreams of parents different from her own, parents who know how to cope in the Congo: “In spite of myself, I pictured a father with shiny black arms pulling fish from the river and a mother with dark, heavy breasts pounding manioc in a wooden trough” (225). Unlike the moment she compares her father to Christ, Leah immediately feels the urge to repent this thought except “I was unsure which commandment my thoughts had broken” (225). Leah takes an additional step of transferring her feelings of her father onto Ruth May, …show more content…
Upon the Price’s arrival, Leah claimed Nathan’s ability to compose himself during difficulties as her “what I admire most about Father” (41). When the primary trait for respecting her father turns out to be a lie, Leah not only loses her faith in Nathan, but, because she has transferred the identity of God onto her father, she loses her faith in God. When the ants flood Kilanga, Leah states that “God hates us” (308). Leah still believes in the existence of God, but she believes that she no longer falls into God’s graces. This sentiment coincides with Anatole instructing Leah not to “expect God’s protection in places beyond God’s dominion” (309). She also believed “Anatole was the one person who cared enough to help me,” while countering that “God didn’t,” directly referring to God as a “person” (308). By transferring God with her father, Leah sees her father’s inability to care about and provide for his family’s well-being as divine punishment. Leah sees her father in an entirely different light: “It was hard to believe I’d ever wanted to be near to him myself. If I had a prayer left in me, it was that this red-faced man shaking with rage would never lay a hand on me again” (333). Leah also abstains from voting, but claims, “I hadn’t voted, nor Mother either…But I guess we all made our choices, one way or the other”