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Character Analysis Of Leah In The Poisonwood Bible

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In the beginning of the novel, Leah’s narrative portrays her as a naïve girl who has only been exposed to what her father has told her. Her only understanding of the world and what is right or wrong has come from her father. Since her surroundings have been stagnant her whole life, the beliefs pressed upon her have deeply rooted themselves in her own belief system. For example, in Leah’s eyes, Nathan can do no wrong. She views her father as “tall as Goliath and pure of heart as David” (40). As she holds her father in a very high regard, she wants to do anything that might make him proud. Leah’s obsession over making her father proud of her has instilled into Leah a sense of dependency: “His devotion to its progress, like his devotion …show more content…

Leah is constantly changing due to her experiences in the Congo. Leah’s view on her father, religion, and her country are challenged by the things that she sees every day in the Congo. Ultimately, Leah makes her own opinion on the subject matter of her father, religion, and country. She realizes that she does not want to partake in anything that might relate to those subjects. She abandons her father and his religion because she sees that it does not hold the justice that she seeks. Likewise, her country works to corrupt the lives of another country and only causes suffering for those people. In addition, through Leah’s narrative one is truly able to see the voice of the Congolese. Because her environment has affected her so much she is able to become a reliable voice for the struggling Congolese. In using Leah’s narrative, Kingsolver is skillfully able to demonstrate the woes of imperialism. Also, through her trials and tribulation, Leah is able to fully explore the topics of imperialism and the effects that it has on the country being colonized. Through Leah’s narrative, Kingsolver is able to express the extent to which one’s surroundings can shape the traits in a

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The author of the book, Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver uses powerful imagery to demonstrate how Leah puts down Mama Tataba when she first meets her. She does this with one of the characters, Mama Tataba. When the characters first meet Mama Tataba, Leah described her as "a little jet-black woman. Her elbows stuck out like wings.

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In the novel, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbra Kingsolver, poetry is continuously used to illustrate Adah’s character. Adah Price is the one character that always appears as though she does not belong. During her childhood while her family lived in Africa, she did not speak, and also was born with hemiplegia, which caused her to walk with a terrible limp. She was created to be very analytical, intelligent, and extremely outside the box. Her habits from when she was younger, such as reading and thinking backwards, can directly relate to her disability and is seen as her way of handling how it feels to be so different from those around her.

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Leah’s tone of contempt towards her father is clear in the previous passage, and she also challenges the importance of the state of Ruth May’s soul, which shows a significant change in her earlier, more submissive and naïve, self. Her absolute belief in her father earlier in the novel is characterized when she says “His [Nathan’s] devotion to its [the garden’s] progress, like his

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This further expands on the meaning by showing the contrast of how little the Congolese care for others’ appearances when compared to the American view. The Congolese shared their view on appearances near the beginning of the novel when describing Mama Mwanza and Mama Nguza. The Americans think Orleanna became tainted while she was in the Congo. Even though Orleanna used to live in Bethlehem, the other residents of the town don’t view her the same way as they did before she went to the Congo. Adah even commented on their reception: “...welcome home the pitiful Prices!

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In many ways the Congo changes the young fourteen-year-old girl into a strong independent woman. There are many encounters in the novel where she starts to question her faith in God as well as in her father. For example, hearing stories about rubber plantation workers getting their hands chopped off because they were not able to get the desired about of rubber startles Leah and makes her question race relations. Race becomes a dominant issue at this point and her experiences in Kilanga have invalidated all she had been taught about race in America. At this point, Leah starts to go on her own and figure out whom she is.

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This often lead to people in power be the leading decision-makers as there was no coherent reasoning behind anything. Once this society lost its ability to know what’s right and what’s wrong, the ability to prepare for any consequences was automatically non-existent; causing conflict where the author showed the constant and inevitable difference of mentality in society. Although this novel was written in the 20th century, its reflection of society is relevant even in today’s times. As readers, when we watch the character’s life unfold, we gain a sense of perspective about African society and how colonization changed everything.

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