Examples Of Imperialism In The Poisonwood Bible

The easiest way to find light at the end of the tunnel is to find humor in the most terrifying situations that humans can encounter. Death, is something that’s bound to happen, but no one ever expects. In the novel, Kingsolver attempts to create a new 'Bible' that would show western imperialism from the point of view of those that experienced it; which were the women. In “The Poisonwood Bible” Barbara Kingslover creates a situation where the characters go to Congo in order to bring people closer to God and deliver salvation, however it’s actually the family who needs deliverance, who needs salvation; and it’s all within themselves. Everything in life made a turn for the worst before the worst part even came. Marrying Nathan was the first

This is stemming from Ruth May’s death the event that changed everything. Life happens for everyone, but for Orleanna, “she seemed determined to grow tragedy out of herself like a bad haircut” (Kingslover 378). Without Nathan, Orleanna can finally flourish and grow into the person she was unable to be. It's unfortunate that one of her daughters had to die before she realizes that. This is what officially initiates the change that was bound to happen. This is Orleanna’s chance at salvation saving herself from misery and redeeming herself of guilt coming from the death of her daughter. Orleanna realizes her initial ignorance towards the Congo by “bringing Betty Crocker cake mixes into the jungle” (Ognibene 8) and her hesitance to learn the culture of the Congolese, but at the same time she also realizes she has been treated as Nathan’s “instrument, his animal” (Ognibene 8) which was dissatisfying. It took time and a period of reflection, but Orleanna soon realized that she was a puppet and could have done so many things differently. Ironically she needed to be delivered in a godly way as well as delivered from her toxic relationship. The limited power she had led to limited knowledge as a whole in Congo which caused ignorance. This too is an example of why she took the actions that she

Once she got home, she's no longer the passive, obedient wife who lets herself get dragged off to foreign places. She works hard to benefit mankind and redeem herself her life she previously lived, and what seemed like hell. She was determined to relieve herself of guilt and never look back. Orleanna had been waiting for this since her first mistake, “She was an entire botanical garden waiting to happen” (Kingslover 208) . This is another inference to her growth, but slightly more meaningful. By describing Orleanna as a botanical garden, it’s showing her growth flourishing, showing from beginning to end how she’s changing into something beautiful that she couldn’t be before. Through all of this there was reasoning, the quest itself; “the real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge”(Foster 3) which directly applies to Orleanna. The trip Congo would be considered the quest, in this case the reasoning is to “convert” others to Christianity. Instead the questor himself failed the task but so did his family. The quest resulted in self- realization, knowledge, and a warning that it’s not Congo that needs to be changed; it’s them and Congo teaches them