Barbara Kingsolver

“The Posionwood Bible”, written by Barbara Kingsolver, is a tale of the Price family’s mission trip to spread the word of God in a primitive town called Kilanga within the Belgian Congo. Although the book is about the whole family’s experience, each chapter includes many narrations from different narrators, also known as a multi-voiced narrative. The multi-voiced narrative allows for the reader to view the story through different members of the family, and this reveals previously hidden aspects…

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…

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. The women have a strong…

In her Romance novel The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver alternates a pair of first-person narratives to tell the story of Taylor Greer, a spunky girl who leaves her Kentucky home and travels west. During her journey away from home, Turtle, a young toddler from Cherokee Nation, is placed in her care. The novel focuses on the pair as they make a new home for themselves in Tucson, Arizona. Throughout her journey, Kingsolver explores many themes; the debate of siding with morality over legality…

In The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, the need to break away from family on behalf of someone’s own well being is a lesson readers have learned from this novel. When the family’s missionary effort to convert Africans to Christianity becomes perilous, the father/husband, nonetheless, continues to follow through with his mission at the hands of his own family’s demise. Later on in the novel, the family goes separate directions after the youngest daughter passed away from a snakebite,…

shows that the standards and expectations for women are lower than that of a man. And those who disagreed took their beliefs to extreme measures. They got in “a shouting match between people who’d voted for [her] and those who’d voted against” (Kingsolver 353). The shouting match occurred due to those in disagreement in whether or not to allow Leah to hunt, and added to this, snakes were planted throughout the village to endanger the lives of Leah's family and Anatole. This reveals the extremes…

not as violent, such injustices were still present in America. Her accent and dress were mocked, she was told to leave the country, and few Americans would befriend her. Most immigrants must endure unfair treatment. The Bean Trees, written by Barbara Kingsolver, is a story set primarily in Arizona that follows two main characters: Taylor Greer and Lou Ann Ruiz. The two girls are subjected to injustice everywhere, whether it is through the poverty in the town where they live or the strip club…

Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver tells a story about a family who moves to Africa as missionaries in hopes to be able to help the village they stay at, Kilanga. During their time in the Congo, they will go through some unexpected troubles that will forever change the Price family. Throughout the book, the author uses some biblical allusion that helps relate the story to the Bible. In the novel, Leah states that her "father [was] as tall as Goliath and pure of heart as David" (Kingsolver…

moving upon the face of the waters. She seems to be telling the story looking back on her time in Africa because she is trapped in the past, whereas the other girls are not. This is because Orleanna is haunted by her experiences in Africa. Barbara Kingsolver uses voice to characterize each sister by making them each have their own individual voice. For example, it is easy to differentiate Ruth May’s voice because she has a child-like voice and is often questioning everything. In my opinion,…

From hermit crabs to Hawaiian Islands, Barbara Kingsolver’s collection of essays, High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now or Never is a read to remember. Though it is a collection of different essays spanning multiple different themes, an important one spans the entirety: Humans come from nature, and nature is chaotic in and of itself; people cannot expect life to be as calm and controlled as they would like. She uses many different examples throughout the book to help prove this point. Not only…