The Maturation of Youth against Society
In literature, there is a format followed by many books depicting the young protagonist experiencing events and undergo maturation. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain is a novel about a young eleven year old boy named Huckleberry Finn who runs away from his abusive drunk father and stumbles upon another runaway slave, Jim. Together they seek freedom. In contrast, in Barbara Kingsolver 's The Poisonwood Bible, the Price family undertake a mission to bring the word of God to the Congo in Africa. They struggle to adapt living in a foreign place with a clashing culture as Reverend Price aims to impose his Christian faith on Kilanga. While the novels are set about a hundred years apart, …show more content…
Leah specifically transitions from a girl following in her father 's footsteps to a woman invested in her family and Africa. Leah enters the Congo accustomed to her Western religious lifestyle, believing her family justified in their mission. Overtime, Leah distances herself from her father after trying and failing to connect with Nathan, turning to Nelson and Anatole to teach her about aspects of Africa and Congolese culture. The more she understands, the more Leah questions the validity of their missionary work and the Western perspective in general. As Rachel sums up near the end of the book, "You can’t just sashay into the jungle aiming to change it all over to the Christian style, without expecting the jungle to change you right back" (Kingsolver, 515). Indeed, the jungle forces Leah to grow up fast. Like the pumpkin vines in the garden she took care of with her father, she also took on the personality of the jungle plants, assimilating into the lifestyle rather than ignoring it.
Huck Finn and the Price woman experienced their coming of age by character development differently. Compared to The Poisonwood Bible, Huck Finn 's story contains much more lies and they are much more significant. While Price women have told lies they aren 't nearly as big of a facet in the story and in turn lack the big impact they have on how Huck matures. Alternatively, a lie in The Poisonwood Bible doesn 't have as big of a consequence as they do in Huck Finn. None of the Price daughters have ever lied about escaping a deadly situation like Huck did with the
In literature, there is a format followed by many books depicting the young protagonist experiencing events and undergo maturation. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain is a novel about a young eleven year old boy named Huckleberry Finn who runs away from his abusive drunk father and stumbles upon another runaway slave, Jim. Together they seek freedom. In contrast, in Barbara Kingsolver 's The Poisonwood Bible, the Price family undertake a mission to bring the word of God to the Congo in Africa. They struggle to adapt living in a foreign place with a clashing culture as Reverend Price aims to impose his Christian faith on Kilanga. While the novels are set about a hundred years apart, …show more content…
Leah specifically transitions from a girl following in her father 's footsteps to a woman invested in her family and Africa. Leah enters the Congo accustomed to her Western religious lifestyle, believing her family justified in their mission. Overtime, Leah distances herself from her father after trying and failing to connect with Nathan, turning to Nelson and Anatole to teach her about aspects of Africa and Congolese culture. The more she understands, the more Leah questions the validity of their missionary work and the Western perspective in general. As Rachel sums up near the end of the book, "You can’t just sashay into the jungle aiming to change it all over to the Christian style, without expecting the jungle to change you right back" (Kingsolver, 515). Indeed, the jungle forces Leah to grow up fast. Like the pumpkin vines in the garden she took care of with her father, she also took on the personality of the jungle plants, assimilating into the lifestyle rather than ignoring it.
Huck Finn and the Price woman experienced their coming of age by character development differently. Compared to The Poisonwood Bible, Huck Finn 's story contains much more lies and they are much more significant. While Price women have told lies they aren 't nearly as big of a facet in the story and in turn lack the big impact they have on how Huck matures. Alternatively, a lie in The Poisonwood Bible doesn 't have as big of a consequence as they do in Huck Finn. None of the Price daughters have ever lied about escaping a deadly situation like Huck did with the