ipl-logo

Compare And Contrast Essay On The Poisonwood Bible

990 Words4 Pages

Poisonwood Bible Super Essay
In Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, relocating to the Congo has contrasting effects on each character. Facing the grueling elements and the lack of normalcy, these characters both react differently to this change and grow in their own way. Rachel and Leah are two distinctive characters who both exhibit change and growth from their time in the Congo. In addition, as a result of white colonization, the Congo has seen significant changes throughout history.
Rachel, who embodies the definition of vanity, arrives in the Congo and quickly misses her modern commodities from back home. Flustered with the thought of her hair getting stained, she states, “Already I was heavy-hearted in my soul for the flush commodes …show more content…

In contrast to Rachel, Leah does not care about her appearances and is a bit of a tomboy. Describing Leah, Ruth May states, “Leah runs everywhere and climbs trees” (21). This passage presents how Leah is not a typical girl and that she loves to do what she wants. She does what she believes is right, and as a result of growing up, “she becomes a teacher and freedom fighter” (Croisy 230). Different from Rachel, Leah goes out, participates in the hunt, and kills her own Impala. Displaying her excitement, she says, “I have killed an animal larger than myself! I screamed as if struck by an arrow myself” (349). As a result of, killing the animal, Leah proves to herself that she is her own person and can stand up for herself. In the beginning the novel, Leah stands by her Father and followed his every step. In “Re-visioning Southern Identity: transatlantic cultural collisions in Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible,” Sophie Croisy …show more content…

The Congo has been a place of abundant resources and minerals that has put a kind of a target on its’ back. As a result of the land and people being stripped, wars have broken out. Furthermore, western capitalists who steal from the Congo, are the only ones who see the profits while the people of the Congo suffer in misery. Because of the interference of western countries, the Congo as a country has been “under-developed” (Renton 172). The Congolese people have assumed a position of dependence, therefore were unable to grow properly as a country, resulting in the Congo unable to stand on its own. Similar to the Price family, missionaries came and set up houses where they lived like kings compared to the Congolese. As a result of this privilege and poverty living close to each other, the locals did not approve and tensions rose. The missionaries ran a school for “orphans, who were mostly mixed raced children” (Mcalister 35) which greatly upsetted the Congolese. The role of race had a huge impact on the Congo as it created problems between the local Congolese and the

Show More
Related

Analysis Of The Poisonwood Bible By Barbara Kingsolver

347 Words | 2 Pages

In the Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, the Price family is living in the ever changing country of the Congo, the author seeks to make a statement on the way that colonialism affects the people of the country being colonized. Kingsolver achieves this effect by adding instances of change and people of different countries coming in and out of the country in order to add the effect of colonization. Colonization in the Congo is shown in The Poisonwood Bible in the way that Nathan rules over his family, he drags his family to the Congo and often acts as the leader and makes all the decisions for the family. Kingsolver uses this as a metaphor comparing Nathan to the European countries and the rest of the family as the Congo. Nathan asserts

Read More

Kingsolver's Hyperbole Analysis

205 Words | 1 Pages

Kingsolver heavily uses hyperbole when speaking from Rachel’s perspective and includes blame as a theme to add personality to characters throughout the book. It is easy to discern Rachel’s voice from the other sisters due to her voice and the way she processes thoughts and emotions. Rachel overexaggerates nearly everything, causing her to be rarely satisfied and constantly discontent with the world around her but never blaming herself for any misfortunes. By describing Leah as “the cause of all our problems,” (Kingsolver, 335) you can see her need to displace any blame away from herself or a predicament’s true factors and onto one set person in the same dramatic way she does anything. A similar attitude can be seen throughout the Price family,

Read More

Poisonwood Bible Analysis

854 Words | 4 Pages

Imagine being fourteen years old and living in a small town in Georgia, packing up as much as you can, or what could fit under your clothes and into a bag, and moving to the Congo of Africa. That’s exactly what the Price family did under their father’s will. Throughout Barbara Kingsolver 's Poisonwood Bible, Leah price experiences the Congo to its’ full potential. Both her psychological and moral traits were formed by cultural, physical, and geographical surroundings. The congolese people influence her decisions and thoughts throughout the book.

Read More

Sacrifice In The Poisonwood Bible

891 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More

Alienation In The Poisonwood Bible

1623 Words | 7 Pages

In The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver creates a character Orleanna Price who was semi-voluntarily exiled to the Congo. She was exiled from a happy life due to her marriage to Nathan Price, she was exiled from both America and Americans when she moved to the Congo, and she was exiled from her family when her youngest daughter died. With each exile, Orleanna’s personality is enriched by the things she learns during that exile, and Orleanna finds herself alienated from the people and lifestyle she used to have before each exile. In the first exile, Orleanna’s personality is enriched from the general life lessons she learns with the experience of age. During that exile, she is alienated from everyone she meets if they meet, have met, or even

Read More

The Poisonwood Bible Literary Analysis

1462 Words | 6 Pages

In the novel, The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, a missionary family travel to the African Congo during the 1960’s, in hopes of bringing enlightenment to the Congolese in terms of religion. The father, Nathan, believes wholeheartedly in his commitment, and this is ultimately his downfall when he fails to realize the damage that he is placing upon his family and onto the people living in Kilanga, and refuses to change the way he sees things. However, his wife, Orleanna, and her daughters, Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May, take the Congo in, and make the necessary changes in their lives, and they do this in order to survive with their new darkness that they are living in. Curiosity and acceptance help the ones with curious minds,

Read More

Leah Price In The Poisonwood Bible

2112 Words | 9 Pages

Pauline Hopkins once said that “our surroundings influence ours lives and characters as just as much as fate, destiny, or any supernatural agency does.” In most cases, Hopkins would be correct. One can absolutely see this concept in the case of Leah Price from The Poisonwood Bible. Early in this novel, Leah Price is the daughter that tried to follow in her father 's footsteps. Almost everything that Leah does is to gain the respect from her father, Nathan, that she so craves.

Read More

The Poisonwood Bible Language Analysis

1020 Words | 5 Pages

In Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, religion is key. The family dynamic - at least superficially - revolves around the father's mission to bring the teachings of Baptism and the Bible to Kilanga, a village in the Congo. It becomes clear that this mission is really only the father's: the Price women in the novel, although originally somewhat excited about this experience, are not nearly as passionate as Nathan, the actual preacher of the religion, the active missionary. While the women are not as devoted to the mission's goals as Nathan, only Adah articulates why; only Adah discusses why she does not believe in God, and why she disagrees with the Western world's intent on converting African people to a religion which acts, in Leah's words,

Read More

Internal Conflicts In Kingsolver's Kilanga

256 Words | 2 Pages

Kingsolver uses strong diction, metaphor, and many other literary devices to describe Leah’s internal conflicts throughout the novel. While discussing Anatole and Leah’s time spent in Kilanga during their youth, she describes the hunger experienced as “starvation burning bitter on the backs of our tongues.” (Kingsolver 504) The word choice and personification used here adds a deeper sense of nostalgia and relief, as though you can almost taste the hunger yourself. The diction and imagery used in this passage suggests Leah and Anatole both have their farfetched dreams and are still clinging on to their past, hoping they can defeat the guilt and contempt they still hold, as Leah describes when saying she wishes to “walk on a compassionate earth

Read More

Ruth May's Reconciliations In Kilanga

805 Words | 4 Pages

Spending a generous amount of time in the heart of the African Congo is bound to change an American family. After spending over a year in the small Congolese village of Kilango, the Price family comes to terms with the fact that they cannot leave Africa without being changed by it, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Living in the Congo at a time when their race was doing all in their power to Westernize Africa, the Price women left Kilanga feeling immense guilt for being a part of this unjust manipulation of the African people. By the end of the novel, all of the Price women leave with the task of reconciling the wrongs they have committed and learning to live with the scars of their mistakes. Kingsolver showcases the moral reassessments

Read More

Transformation In The Poisonwood Bible

1432 Words | 6 Pages

The clash of the West and Africa, creates unique situations that everyone must face. The Poisonwood Bible, written by Barbara Kingsolver, shows how foreigners who enter another land are affected by the countries culture and faith, and in return how a society is affected. In the novel, children are led by the missionary father, Nathan into the Congo, where they face the task of religious conversion. Also, the Price children were influenced by the African culture and faith, in which changed how they view life and their attitudes toward the Congo. Each child’s perception of life distinct and molds them into the person they will become.

Read More

Gender Roles In The Poisonwood Bible

1210 Words | 5 Pages

Set deep in the dense forests of Congo and in the heart of African culture, The Poisonwood Bible presents a story of the Price family and their revelations on confronting a different culture. In The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver presents the theme that women must overcome the naturally forming barriers that are created as a result of societal norms. The female characters of The Poisonwood Bible are oppressed by not only the rules of society but the chauvinistic and supercilious ways of the male, Nathan Price. Orleanna and Leah demonstrate the importance of making life altering choices in order to redeem themselves. Kingsolver demonstrates that by overcoming the barriers of societal and personal expectations, women are able to be empowered.

Read More

Comparing Douglas And Narrative Of The Life Of A Slave Girl

819 Words | 4 Pages

In Jacobs’ narrative, one account of a young girl giving birth, and suffering great pain, she cries out, “O Lord, come and take me!” (3). While this is happening, her mistress stands by mocking the girl. After the birth of the child, the young girl’s mother hopes for her own baby to be in heaven soon because of the horridness of the world around them (3). The mistress then continues, “There is no such place for the like of her and her bastard” (4).

Read More

What Is The Context Of Congo White King Red Rubber Black Death

472 Words | 2 Pages

Introduction: The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a country that has been plagued by colonialism and its aftereffects. The video "Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death" delves into the dark history of the Congo Free State during the period of King Leopold II's reign. The video highlights the atrocities committed against the Congolese people and the legacy of colonialism that continues to impact the country to this day. Body: During King Leopold II's reign (1885-1908), the Congo Free State was established, and he became its sole ruler.

Read More

The Role Of Baptism In The Congolese

397 Words | 2 Pages

In 1959, when the Price family first arrives to the Congo, the country is controlled by the Belgians through colonial rule. In the past, Belgium attempted to “civilize” the Congolese by bringing them Catholic missionaries to convert them and tried to establish schools for education. The Belgians also established businesses (such as diamond mining) where the Congolese people were forced to work to enrich the Belgians. This mirrors the actions of Nathan Price, the Baptist minister who brings his family over from the United States on a religious mission. Nathan Price, being the only male figure in his family, rules over his wife and daughters.

Read More

More about Compare And Contrast Essay On The Poisonwood Bible

Related Topics

Open Document