Corruption In The Poisonwood Bible

The kingdom of Kongo (later changed to Congo) was a large kingdom in Africa that was stable until Europeans came and conquered the territory. The western world used Social Darwinism to make their imperialistic practices appear normal and accepted in society. White people believed Africans were savages and beneath them because they held rituals and lived under a different moral code than themselves. The Belgian king, Leopold II, used the Congo to seize resources from Africa. He mistreated the Africans and caused many to be killed or worked to death. After these events transpired, Belgium worked to make the Congo semi-dependent, though the Congo still worked to be completely free through different nationalist groups. One leader was a man named

They decided to install their own capitalistic, corrupt dictator named Joseph-Désiré Mobutu. Written in 1998, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingslayer is set during the era of Congo’s independence, which highlights the instability of the country. To this day, the Congo is unstable because of the events that transpired in the past. In the novel, Kingslayer uses the Price girls’ viewpoints to show how Africa was damaged by the corruption, assimilation, and the draining of their natural resources that white people enforced. This is a work that goes into the heart of Africa through the lives of the Price’s and leaves a lasting impression on the readers, just as white people left an impression on the people of

“And so it came to pass that we stepped down there on a place that we believed unformed”. The ‘we’ includes Ruth May, and the rest of Orleanna’s family, though since she is alone when she speaks, she is talking to her daughter’s spirit. Orleanna personifies Ruth May’s spirit “Now you laugh, day and night” which shows that the past still haunts her thoughts.
The narrator also uses rhetorical questions to make the reader speculate about the events to come, “What do we know even now?” and also shows that the Price’s are still learning things years after the events in Africa took place.
Orleanna shows the cultural arrogance and guilt that comes from conquering Africa. “We aimed for no more than to have dominion over every creature that moved upon the earth.” Coming from the U.S., she was taught that she was above Africans which explains the question, “But what else could we have thought?” She shows that she has learned that the place someone comes from does not make them superior towards another race, especially if they both are in the same situation. This passage, which occurs towards the beginning of the story introduces the story’s mother and warns the readers of events to come that will shape the Price’s family destiny and haunt them for the rest of their