History And History In The Poisonwood Bible

The Poisonwood Bible ultimately communicates that as humans live they acquire their own history, and therefore their own story. History is originally retold through the perspectives of people who experience it, therefore it is littered with, and consequently altered by, their own personal emotions and memories attached to the moments. Adah Price, arguably the most introspective narrator in the novel, sums up human life to be “what [they] stole from history, and how [they] live with it,” which further reiterates the concept that humans redefine history by telling their own stories and recollections of what is most true to them and how they are managing what they experience. The notion that humans “steal” something from history is clearly conveyed through Adah’s dialogue, which indicates that as humans adopt history as their own stories, and thereby change it, they are stealing some of the authenticity that accompanies history (Kingsolver 492).

Each narrator relays the same events in different ways that are accommodating to their personality and their disposition on being in the Congo. For instance, Ruth May’s narrations of events typically have a cheerful connotation and perceive the Congo as an adventurous, whereas her older sister, Rachel, relentlessly demeans the Congo through her recollections. Although both girls are recounting the same events, the dissimilarity between their storytellings creates contrasting impressions on the reader. Overall, The Poisonwood Bible and the five distinct narratives within it, create five alterations of history: the five separate stories adapted from the single