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Meals In Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible

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Meals in literature often represent something bigger, bringing communities together in a form of communion. However, this is not the case; in The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, the meals are ironic they help to show discord and strife among the characters of the book. She uses meals to foreshadow future events, reveal the flaws of the characters, and as the book progresses, allows for the reader to see character development. In novel, Kingsolver twists the normal connotation of a meal and makes it ironic in order to demonstrate the discord and strife that is commonplace throughout the book that shows the lack of community between the Prices and those they interact with for most of the book. Through the welcome feast that the Kilongese throw at the beginning of the book, Kingsolver creates an impression for the reader that perhaps the Prices will get along with the natives; however, she shatters that possibility with the meal that follows. This first meal of the book is extremely important because it acts as a harbinger of events and trends that will occur in the rest of the novel. Before the actual food is revealed, Kingsolver has Rachel …show more content…

Kingsolver gives hints about Rachel’s future during the meal as well as Nathan’s and Leah’s: although she does not directly say it outright, her attitude during Brother Fowles’ visit seem slightly derogatory, such as “So back to the kitchen for Rachel the slave!” and “That goes without saying…given his marital situation” (246), with regards to the fact that Brother Fowles loves the Kilongese and their culture. This fact makes sense, because in the end Rachel ends up the most like her father of all of the daughters. Overall, the meal with Fowles helps to further foreshadow the future of the characters in the

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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

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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,

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The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is a story of Orleanna Price, wife of Nathan Price and mother of 4 daughters. The Price family travels to the Belgian Congo on a mission trip to spread their faith of Southern Baptism to the Congolese. The people of the Congo have different customs and beliefs which is different from the Price’s beliefs. The daughters in The Poisonwood Bible begin to make an impact on the people of the Congo.

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The title, The Poisonwood Bible, is an excellent title for the plot of this book. “Tata Jesus is bangala” (331), which has two different meaning because bangala means precious and also the poisonwood tree. Reverend Price says this phrase at the end of every sermon, but he mispronounces the word bangala so that it means poisonwood tree. So the locals think he is saying “Jesus is the poisonwood tree” instead of “Jesus is precious.” This makes the title very important because it makes the Congolese not want to know God because they think He is poisonwood.

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It showed she had to strength to put her children before her own love life. Kingsolver made Nathan leave her husband to show how extreme Nathan Price went into converting the Congolese people into civilized, Christian citizens. One last and most important thing that Orleanna has given up in the Congo, is her sanity. Orleanna Price will never be the same person after leaving the Congo with one child, losing one to death, and leaving the other two behind. Along with basically losing all but one child, she also loses her husband to the man above.

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In the novel The Bean Trees, Kingsolver’s belief that people survive through another 's generosity and empathy recur throughout the novel. This belief holds truth as many of the characters within Kingsolver’s novel find survival within the empathy and generosity they receive from others. The relationship between Taylor and Turtle reflect this theme through their mother-daughter relationship. Kingsolver’s belief also holds truth with Estevan and Esperanza’s situation and the help they receive. Kingsolver even weaves her belief within the relationships between minor characters such as Virgie and Edna as well as Sandi and Kid Central Station.

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Bhanu Oruganty Miss Given World Literature 11 5 February 2018 Response 3 The concept The Poisonwood Bible is trying to bring to recognition is that there are always multiple perspectives to any story. The usage of several narrators allows one to see the same story from different points of views that all differ.

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In Barbara Kingsolver’s work, The Poisonwood Bible, Nathan Price is a character which responds to injustice in some significant way. Out of all the other characters, Nathan is the one who responds the most to an act of injustice by going on a campaign halfway around the world to somehow repay his obligation to God. He plans to do this by spreading Christianity, or at least his version of Christianity, to the native people of the Congo. The whole reason for him doing this is that he believes being wounded and leaving battle right before the rest of his company dies is an act of injustice and feels as if though he should have died there with his men. Nathan feels like he is a failure and is guilty for not dying with his brothers on the battlefield.

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One generally invites one’s friends to dinner, unless one is trying to get on the good side of enemies or employers. We’re quite particular about those with whom we break bread.” (Foster, 9) Through the breaking of bread, or in this case the laborious cleaning, cooking, and finally the eating of chitlins is representative of a communion, between the almost sacred bonds between a mother and her daughter. Throughout the exposition of the short story, we constantly see that the other members of her family reject the chitlins for being “country” or smelling strange.

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One quote from the book is “I spent my days in total idleness. With only one desire: to eat. I no longer thought of my father, or my mother. From time to time, I would dream. But only about soups, and extra ration of soup."

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Having read, The Poisonwood Bible book, it was both fascinating and interesting. The author, Barbara Kingsolver, was quick with her diction and used quite a lot of figurative language. The objective of the book was to show the true meaning of Africa and show how it was difficult to convert the people of Africa to Christianity religion. The setting was present in Georgia, which later they traveled to a village called Kilanga in Congo, in which they started their journey. The main characters includes, Nathan Price who was the main character, his wife Orleanna Price, and their four daughters, Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May.

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Madeleine Thien’s “Simple Recipes” is not mainly about the father cooking food and his treatment towards his son, instead, the author uses food to symbolize the struggles her immigrated family experienced in Canada. While it is possible to only look at the narratives that food symbolizes, the idea is fully expressed when the father is compared with the food. The theme of food and the recipes are able to convey the overall troubles the narrator’s family encountered. Although, food is usually a fulfilling necessity in life, however, Thien uses food to illustrate the struggle, tensions, and downfall of the family. Yet, each food does represent different themes, but the food, fish, is the most intriguing because of the different environment

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