Analysis Of The Poisonwood Bible By Barbara Kingsolver

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is an allegorical novel describing a family’s missionary trip from America to the Congo as well as a description of Congolese culture, religion, and political state. The novel includes viewpoints from five characters, excluding the father, Nathan Price, who is a Southern Baptist Missionary as well as a veteran from World War II. Nathan forces his wife and four daughters on a missionary trip to the Congo not because he deeply wants to change the souls of the Congolese people, but because he’s worried about the contentment of his own soul, his own salvation and he allows this concern to overpower the well-being of the entire family. The mother, Orleanna Price viewpoint is told as well, but not as much

From that point forward, Orleanna’s life changed tremendously, with Nathan as her primary focus. She grew content with the fact that she was ultimately a vessel of her husband. It took her deliberately sacrificing something she really valued for her to realize how much she valued herself and the people around her. Her identity and Ruth May, her youngest daughter. Kingsolver highlighted the idea that the role played in the household or even the role contributed to society, ultimately causes people to sacrifice things
Evans 2 assumed to be valued. But once they're sacrificed how much are they really valued? How much needs to be sacrificed before the things valued are recognized? What will ultimately cause one to realize the very things they do really value?
As Orleanna looks back on the events and her place in the Congo she realises how submissive and passive she was due to the aggressiveness of her husband. She realises how much of herself she sacrificed in order to maintain his happiness. “I remember running to throw my arms around mother’s knees when he regaled with words, and worse, for curtains unclosed or slips showing-the sins of womanhood” (Kingsolver 68). Nathan’s views and ideas became

Griffith stated “ Consider Orleanna Price, wife of a violent bible-quoting missionary in Barbara
Kingsolver’s novel, The Poisonwood Bible (1998), a woman whose loss of a beloved child impels her to finally flee both her husband and her faith ..” (5). Writers agree that it took
Orleanna finally losing someone who held a lot of value to her in order for her to really
Evans 4 understand how much her family meant to her. She was willing to sacrifice the last piece of herself for her husband and once she did , she realized how much value they really hold. That marked a turning point for Orleanna. Her primary focus then became rescuing her children from the Congo, regardless of what she had to do. Orleanna also had to make the ultimate sacrifice for her own well-being as well as her childrens’. A sacrifice that made her have to choose between her own happiness or her comfortability. That was sacrifice was Nathan. Sacrificing Nathan meant that Orleanna would have the ability to be herself again, have power over her own life again. “ I remained his wife because it was the only thing I was able to do each day. My daughters would say, You