The Poisonwood Bible

“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…

In my opinion, every single member of the Price family grows and changes over time. Some characters are drastically dynamic while some are borderline static, but there are notable changes in every character in The Poisonwood Bible. This change mainly comes from the setting of the story. The Price family moves to the Congo in 1959. The Congo is very trying and a miserable place to live in, changing each family member individually and the dynamics of the family as a whole. The author demonstrates…

Both The Awakening and The Poisonwood Bible hold many themes that are similar and events that correlate to one another. In The Awakening, Edna is unhappy in her marriage, feeling like she is the only one who ever does anything around the house while her husband goes to work and does little around the house. In The Poisonwood Bible, Orleanna has the feelings of regret in even marrying Nathan as he becomes very hard headed after the war. Orleanna feels like her husband just does not care anymore…

as an interwoven network of various part and sub-parts, and every small action can 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…

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…

At first instinct it seems to be easy to be able to deal and more on from a passing of a loved one; however, allowing yourself to never forget about it comes with consequences. The novels The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, The Gathering by Anne Enright, and the short story “Was It a Dream” by Marjorie Laurie are all connected by a similar theme of relevance of their relationship, the guilt of their loss, and the ending result of hoe they overcome it. As a development, the works all…

(Angelou). The treatment of African Americans in the United States has historically been that of great injustice. They have suffered through the hardships of slavery, segregation, and the recurring racism that is still prominent in society today. 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…

Adah is the most fascinating character in the Poisonwood Bible. Adah is one of Nathan and Orleanna’s four daughters and is one of the narrators of the book. Adah is the identical twin sister of Leah, however, they are like night and day. Adah has been paralyzed on her whole left side from birth. Adah rarely speaks and is usually reading books, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or Emily Dickinson Poetry. She is a very unique person and is very intelligent, however her family doesn’t really know that…

The Awakening discovers that she cannot live outside of society’s norms; whereas, Orleanna of The Poisonwood Bible learns how deep seeded guilt can spark self-awareness. While The Awakening’s Edna develops into the beginnings of a self-actualized woman by understanding her deep inner self and finally develops into a a version of herself most disillusioned; whereas, Orelanna Price from The Poisonwood Bible becomes enlightened after experiencing the death of a child and understanding how years of…

In Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad discusses how the Europeans treat the native congo people. Throughout the novella imperialism is presented by the Europeans attempting to colonize the Congo region. Joseph Conrad explains the harsh exploitation of the Congo through the perspective of Marlow. Marlow sees how the natives are treated with disrespect as their rightful land is taken from them. By analyzing Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad through a new criticism lens, one can see that the…