Analysis Of The Poisonwood Bible

Superior Essays
“Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore,” was said by a great character some time ago, but this quote also applies to the to Price family (Fleming). For this, Dorothy is sort of Rachel Price and Toto is like her siblings, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May. Kansas, in this case, is actually Georgia and Oz is the Congo. So what this analogy is saying is that The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is basically The Wizard of Oz just ever so slightly longer. In the story of The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy is forever changed from her actions and experiences in Oz into a better person. While in the Congos, Rachel from the The Poisonwood Bible is morally changed from being bad to downright lousy. This Price sister represents America in the story of …show more content…
The audience can see how Rachel’s mindset and moral standing from the start of The Poisonwood Bible. When the Price family got off the plane in the Congo, Rachel’s first comment is “aren’t you glad you use Dial? Don’t you wish everybody did?” (Kingsolver, 23) This statement alone has a few negative connotations with it. The audience can start to gain the type of person Rachel was before the trip to the Congo. Through Rachel’s eye, the audience sees distorted version of reality that she truly believe everyone should live and act. Dial, by being an American product, show how Rachel thinks the people of Congo are of a lower staying then her, because they do not have the same access to items as she did back in America. Items such as soap or cooking pans are seen as simple, ordinary by people who are from a western country. While in the eyes as the Congolese, they are a luxury and can be replaced with other objects such as oils and boiled water for a bath and bowl shaped pieces of metal for pans. Despite not have modern products like the “civilized,” parts of the world, they made a life for themselves and sometimes had more than enough to feed their families. They were living their lives and they were okay with what they had. Rachel is able to taste just a little bit of the culture they to give to her. She threw it back at them by judging the way the Congolese smell. The small comment of the smell of the person from Rachel can really be seen as racist. The reason is that she never thought about taking into consideration of how privilege she is compared to the people of this country. Comments like these display how Americans felt about other countries. No contemplation or thought were put into why these people were not like Americans. This shows the theme of America being negligent towards the topics like race. Rachel is literally showing how American she is. A reader should give her a benefit of the doubt. This is the first time

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Matthew Richard Schlimm, who wrote “This Strange and Sacred Scripture” raises a plethora of questions to sections of the Bible people have always thought to have had answers too. As someone who has always taken the Bible at face value and believed everything to be true; both the Old Testament class and Schlimm’s book make me question what I truly know as a fact from the Bible. Both the class and the book make me wonder why God did certain things in a particular way too. One of the first topics of Schlimm’s book that we discussed in class was, is it okay to have doubts and ask questions about the Bible? Which was a really hard topic for me to comprehended at the beginning of the class, but know my perspective on the question has completely changed.…

    • 734 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    (Durrow, pg 148) The critical remarks and terms used to describe Rachel and her siblings were the reason her mother wanted to take their lives. She was not prepared for the severe objection that society inflicted based on the color of her children’s skin and their relation to a white woman. She took the easy way out and just wanted it all to end, thinking that if they are dead, no one can say anything discriminative. The absence of her mother throughout the later years of her life creates problems for Rachel.…

    • 1346 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, The Poisonwood Bible, the villain of the story is the Price family patriarch, Nathan Price. Nathan Price is abusive, sexist, and racist. All of these traits cause a problem between him and his family or the Kilanga village, I’m which the story takes place. Nathan Price lives with his wife, and 4 daughters in the village of Kilanga in the Congo.…

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Title: The Poisonwood Bible Author: Barbara Kingsolver Published: 1998 Genre: Historical Fiction Point of View: The book is told from five different points of view. All of the Price family members are narrators except for Nathan, the father. The four daughters are the narrators for most of the book, with only a few short chapters told from the mothers point of view. The mothers chapters are written in past tense while the daughters are told in first person present tense. Setting/Atmosphere: The story takes place in the early 1960s in a small village in the Belgian Congo.…

    • 984 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Barbara Kingsolver used Ruth May in the Poisonwood Bible to summarize her overarching message of misinformation that was present throughout the entirety of the novel. The first instance of misinformation occurred when the Price family arrived at the airport to leave for the Congo. Everyone over packed and they had to decide what was imperative to take and what they could throw away. They ended up taking things that were not needed and had no use in the Congo such as cake mix.…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rachel was raised by her Caucasian mother to think of herself as white, but now she is in racially intolerant Portland and expected to “act black”. Rachel refuses to accept the narrow labels that people in Portland are using as adequate to describe who she really is – she rejects all of the descriptors as belonging to someone else, not her. As she grows up Rachel becomes convinced that she will never be free to define herself until she…

    • 1058 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Wizard of Awes Dozens of advancements in movie producing technology occurred between the late 1920’s and the early 1960’s, this time period is often referred to as the Golden Age of Hollywood due to its unique style (Goldberg, “Classical Hollywood Cinema”). Many of America’s most revolutionary and memorable movies have unique qualities that set them apart from others due to the developing technology that was created in this forty year period. The Wizard of Oz, a movie about a girl’s trip to an unknown land and her journey back home, was one of such movies and is often known for its exceptional use of Technicolor—the newest and most advanced coloring process of its time. The Wizard of Oz is a whimsical and captivating movie that manages…

    • 1413 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The novel The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is a wonderful story that depicts the lives of missionaries in the Congo. The Price’s, who are staying in a small village, illustrates the hardships and joys the African desert can bring. Each daughter teaches a lesson while their mother, Orleanna acts as a comprehensive voice. One of the main aspects of this book is women. The storyline battles with misogyny and the patriarchy that defines their societal norms.…

    • 1562 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the Poisonwood Bible, western arrogance is emphasized throughout both the Price family and the Western countries through the actions they show toward the Congo. At the start of the novel, all of the Prices hide their belongings in their clothes in order to have the necessities in the new country. These belongings have no real place in the Congo, where Betty Crocker cake mixes, a hand mirror, scissors, a thimble, pencils, and first aid supplies represent former world and stand out. These are “civilization’s evils” that the family felt would be needed the greatest.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    No one wanted to have anything to do with her. Even her best friends despised her. Now, when Rachel throws these words at her, she breaks. She was hoping she could tell her, Rachel was the person she wanted to tell the most. This was the person she grew up with.…

    • 850 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    She learned to adjust in an environment where everyone get too comfortable working with each other by expressing their emotions about their work daily. She is part of Dunkin Donut family that made her to continue her career. She has people who support each other by listening to each other and continue through the worst days with customers. Second of all, Rachel shared most of emotional metaphor that she experiences at Dunkin Donut and most of them are realistic and negative. She has one metaphor that explains the love/hate relationship of the employees with customers at Dunkin Donuts.…

    • 1225 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is a political allegory that depicts racism in both America and Africa. A political allegory is a story that has a hidden meaning which encourages the readers to question political normalities (“What Is a Political”). The preeminent obstacles faced by African…

    • 1257 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    If Rachel truly cared about black people, she would not waste her time trying to change her color; her total interest should have been directed toward creating awareness about how black women are treated within society nor trying to be one. It seems that all this drama is mostly of interest than for admiration or…

    • 1202 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    She self-identifies herself as a black woman and this is a huge issue to a lot of people. Stated by Crowley, “at any moment she can decide to halt the extreme tanning, uncurl her hair and return to her previously scheduled life as a white woman.” Rachel has such hard feelings towards…

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Edward Said, literary theorist and cultural critic, described exile as strangely compelling to think about but thrilling to experience. “The Poisonwood Bible,” by Barbara Kingsolver, is a novel that illuminates the alienating and enriching concept of exile. Leah Price, second oldest daughter of Nathan Price and Orleanna Price, from a young age of 14 learned the frustrating, bewitching and nullifying abstraction of exile, and continued to learn in her aging years. Leah Price exiles herself from her family, her home and her faith in her religion and becomes the woman she is today.…

    • 1265 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays