The Poisonwood Bible

In the novel The Poisonwood Bible, written by Barbara Kingsolver and published in 1999, follows the story of the Prices, a missionary family. They depart from Georgia in 1959 and head to the Congo, their expectations coming nowhere close to unforgiving African life. The mother and four daughters tell their stories first person of how they suffered under the fist of their legalistic, abusive father. The main portion of the book takes place in a village called Kilanga, where the patriarch, Nathan, is the new minister. The family experiences numerous embarrassments, due mostly to the father’s lack of cultural understanding and tolerance. Tragedy eventually strikes, and a daughter is lost to a poisonous snake bite. After this, the women of the family leave both the village and the preacher behind to embark on their own journeys. The last part of the novel covers their separate lives, with a focus on how Africa stuck with them. In the beginning, matriarch Orleanna seems to be the most important character. She does the housework, takes care of the children, and cooks for the family. Soon, though, it becomes clear that her husband makes sure she has no voice. Her daughters see this, but they, too, are without voices. Rachel, the…

In Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, Leah has a reveals, “God doesn’t need to punish us. He just grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves”(327). This relates directly to Nathan’s life, as his life begins a long downward spiral to his own demise. The Poisonwood Bible shows how stress from war can affect human relations and cause deep emotional problems. The book begins with the Price family going to the Congo unprepared, and trying to convert the locals. The failed attempts of…

In The Poisonwood Bible, the Price family goes on a missionary trip to Africa. They take an airplane to Kilanga, a Congolese village. There, Nathan tries to baptize the natives, while Orleanna attempts to keep her daughters from dying due to the dangers lurking in the unknown. The females and males in the family all have different opinions about coming to Africa. In the historical fiction novel, The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver shows that it is not the Price’s or the white man’s duty to…

Kingsolver makes the Poisonwood Bible a unique experience by telling the story from five different points of view. She tells the story from a mother and four daughter’s point of view. Each of the characters portrays the story in their own distinct way. The story is told by either Orleanna, Adah, Ruth May, Leah, or Rachel and they all speak in the first-person. The husband of Orleanna and father of the four girls, Nathan Price, is the only member of the Price family who doesn’t have a voice in…

Culture, it’s what define a nation. It also plays a key role in shaping the reactions and the events that play out through the story of The Poisonwood Bible. It can be evidently seen in characters such as Nathan Price. Nathan is witnessing the congo after years of turmoil caused by king leopold and his cronies. “For Europeans, Africa remained the supplier of valuable raw materials—human bodies and elephant tusks. But otherwise they saw the continent as faceless, blank, empty a place on the map…

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…

Set in the Congo for the majority of the novel, The Poisonwood Bible uses this plot point to alter its various characters through their personalities and interactions with one another. By continually experiencing treacherous and stressful situations, Leah’s ideals changed and her true values came to light. With the shifting of said beliefs, she was eventually pushed to sacrifice the tradition embedded within her morals and a significant relationship that she once held dear. Over the course of…

Palestinian American literary theorist and cultural critic Edward Said has written that “ Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.” In “The Poisonwood Bible” Nathan Price the father of the price family has exiled himself from his family which creates a rift in this family which eventually separates the whole…

Orleanna’s House of Guilt In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Poisonwood Bible, Nathan Price, the father to four daughters and husband to Orleanna Price, brings his family on a missionary trip to the Congo. Their daily routines of residing in the Congo require hard work for survival, whereas in Georgia, life necessities like water and food are easily given. Although the Price family has left their home in Georgia, it is Orleanna who believes that as long as she is able to care for her family, she…

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…