Individuality In The Poisonwood Bible

How do you describe the characteristics and requirements of a real “home”? In the Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, the outspoken and bold character known as Leah Price experiences a major rift between her family and former American homelife that leads her to transfer her obsessions over acceptance by her father to the conflict within the Congo and her lover, Anatole. Leah’s failure to receive the approval from her father through religious excellence and prestige along with the death of her youngest sister, Ruth May, led her to resent the ideals and oppressive hand that her father had implemented since her birth. Anatole’s evident acceptance and admiration of Leah’s individuality allowed Leah to feel fulfilled in her need for acceptance

The author ,Susan Strehle, further supports this when she analyzes Nathan’s true personality and prejudices and states that “Leah comes to realize that women have no place in her father’s system of values...in Nathan’s view, their proper role is quiet, humble acquiescence to and support the exceptional man” (###). At one point, Leah admits to the evident gender inequality both in the Bible and the eyes of her father when she says “ For Father, the Kingdom of the Lord is an uncomplicated place, where tall, handsome boys fight on the side that always wins...What do a girl’s bravery and righteousness count for, unless she is also pretty” (Kingsolver 244). Both the quote by Strehle and following quote by Leah reveal that Leah begins to struggle and resent the environment and people that she grew up around because her wish to be seen as an equal was found neither within her father or the Bible. As Leah begins to witness her sister’s decline and her own lack of equality that she longed for from her father, she began to doubt her place within the environment that she grew up in and in the Bible. Once Leah realized her fight to gain the acceptance and equal opportunities through her father, she began to have a distrust in all that she once cherished. Due to this distrust, Leah began to search for acceptance and freedom through the people of the Congo. She did this by attaching herself to many male figures that allowed her shatter the boundaries enforced by society and her father. A young, African boy named Nelson encouraged Leah to learn the bow and encouraged her to hunt even through the village’s and her father’s protests, and a young man named Anatole allowed Leah to spread her