A Response to Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible and the essentializing of Africa: a critical double standard? Barbara Kingsolver was not able to enter the Congo/Zaire while she was writing this book. She admits that she is relying on memories, other cultures, and others accounts of what the Congo/Zaire is like to write this book. I disagree with what William F. Purcell has to say about the use of cultures in her book.
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.
In the Poisonwood Bible, a southern Baptist Minister named Nathan Price traveled to the South African Congo dragging his wife and four daughters along with him even though they didn’t want to go. Although most of the book is set in the heart of the African Congo, it starts out in Atlanta, Georgia. The book starts out in 1959 and it is concluded in 1998. Poisonwood Bible has a series of four narrators which are the four daughters, Rachel Price, Leah Price, Adah Price, and Ruth May Price. Rachel is the one of the most important characters.
The Poisonwood Bible is an adventurous tale of an American family settling in Congo, Africa for a mission to spread their Christian faith. The family member in charge of the mission is Nathan Price, a Baptist preacher. It is a story of the effects of culpability on people’s lives. The characters develop and drastically change throughout the story because of their experiences of living in the Congo. It is a dangerous place where “the land owns the people” (Kingsolver 283).
Response to: the gospel according to barbara kingsolver: brother fowles and st. Francis of assisi in the poisonwood bible Although I did not agree with William F. Purcell’s essay about culture in The Poisonwood Bibe, I do agree with him on his view of the gospel in the book. When you hear the title of this book you automatically think, church, God, Christianity or religion. In Purcell’s essay he states tat he believes there are multiple types of christianity in this book. After reading this essay I fully agree with his stand on the gospel according to Barbara Kingsolver.
Pain, both physical and mental, affects every character in The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. However, the biggest loss, which is that of the Price family’s youngest child, Ruth May’s, life also brings about some positive effects as well. Here, similarly to in Twelfth Night, a person is sacrificed for the greater good. Naturally, it may be more difficult to imagine the benefit of Ruth May’s sacrifice than to imagine the benefits of Viola’s, but if given adequate thought, it becomes clear that the death of Ruth May helps the other women in the Price family to realize Nathan Price’s destructive ways. Kingsolver first exposes Leah Price’s newfound argumentative and bold personality, and her opposition towards her father in the following exchange, “”She wasn’t baptized yet,” he said.
This further expands on the meaning by showing the contrast of how little the Congolese care for others’ appearances when compared to the American view. The Congolese shared their view on appearances near the beginning of the novel when describing Mama Mwanza and Mama Nguza. The Americans think Orleanna became tainted while she was in the Congo. Even though Orleanna used to live in Bethlehem, the other residents of the town don’t view her the same way as they did before she went to the Congo. Adah even commented on their reception: “...welcome home the pitiful Prices!
In the novel, The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, a missionary family travel to the African Congo during the 1960’s, in hopes of bringing enlightenment to the Congolese in terms of religion. The father, Nathan, believes wholeheartedly in his commitment, and this is ultimately his downfall when he fails to realize the damage that he is placing upon his family and onto the people living in Kilanga, and refuses to change the way he sees things. However, his wife, Orleanna, and her daughters, Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May, take the Congo in, and make the necessary changes in their lives, and they do this in order to survive with their new darkness that they are living in. Curiosity and acceptance help the ones with curious minds,
She grows old with the self-condemnation of staying with Nathan for as long as she did, for if she mustered up the courage to leave the Congo earlier, Ruth May would not have died. Ruth May’s plea for Orleanna to forgive herself, just as Ruth May has forgiven her, presents the possibility of repentance for anyone, no matter how great of consequence their mistakes are. Though she never passed the age of 6, Ruth May seems to have learned better than most the importance of finding strength from and learning from wrong-doings. Urging her mother to “Move on. Walk forward into the light”, Ruth may passes along her own moral reassessment to anyone whom will listen, telling the error in letting so-called sins weigh down ones self forever
Observing each character, the book draws attention to the inner dialogue and struggles they
In many ways the Congo changes the young fourteen-year-old girl into a strong independent woman. There are many encounters in the novel where she starts to question her faith in God as well as in her father. For example, hearing stories about rubber plantation workers getting their hands chopped off because they were not able to get the desired about of rubber startles Leah and makes her question race relations. Race becomes a dominant issue at this point and her experiences in Kilanga have invalidated all she had been taught about race in America. At this point, Leah starts to go on her own and figure out whom she is.
With the inclusion of a multitude of perspectives, experiences, and emotions outside her own, her expertise heightens allowing her to be more respected as an influential writer on the subject at
Unlike others, Adah views herself as whole. Yet she struggles to accept in the years to come why she made it out of the Congo, but unfortunately, no answers came. However, hatred and resentment never fade. Adah bares anger and resents those who have done her wrong: her mother, her father, her sisters.
A deceiving student, Macca, dominates both Ruth and fellow victim, Philip. No one attempts to control this, not even Mrs Canmore who only warns the bullies. One student, Ruth, comes from a tough background; she is a soldier against the Macca War. Despite the consequences, Ruth becomes a quiet hero; this inspires the audience. Throughout the story, the author portrays Ruth as a shred of hope for the other characters.
The word “critical” often conjures the incorrect image of negativity. If the Four Gospels are to be analysed critically would this study find loopholes only? This need not be the case, as the Four Gospels, and the Bible as a whole, has withstood the test of time. As a stand-alone text, the Bible has proven its accuracy in its portrayal of events, its authorship, and its date of writing. Though scholars have tried to use both textual and literary criticism to discredit the Four Gospels, there are an equal number of scholars, using these same tools, who have proved that the Four Gospels have an accurate portrayal of events.
