Religion In The Poisonwood Bible

Throughout literature, themes and messages have made strong points to convey an idea. Ranging from the epics of old, centered on selflessness and courage, to the modern stories revealing moral-building characteristics, themes play an important part in connecting the writing to the reader. In the story The Poisonwood Bible, author Barbara Kingsolver uses elements such as religion, nature, and the arrogance of the western world to reach out to the reader and introduce the concept she is trying to teach. Religion has an enormous influence in The Poisonwood Bible, primarily during the first two-thirds of the book because of the presence of Nathan. One prime example of this is when Anatole, the interpreter between the Price family

The young male lion that carefully trailed Adah and almost killed her is an effective depiction of nature (pg. 139-141). Nature is ruthless, untamed, and does not show any clear opportunity to be contained or trained. It was a near miss for Adah, for had the bushbuck not taken her place, she would have ended up in the belly of a predator. A predator, like Africa itself, is wild and changes everyone’s perspective of it when not visualized, but experienced in reality. The long account of the raid by the ants (pg. 299-311) showed the power of nature, by moving along and sweeping aside everything. Some places have hurricanes and volcanoes; the Congo has ants. Both of these examples show how large a role nature plays in the story. Africa’s natural characteristics represent the untamed portion that cannot be changed. Nathan ventured into the Congo thinking he would have trouble converting the inhabitants; but nature can never be converted. It tore his family apart, and brought about their many partings. The theme that nature cannot be controlled or converted is prevalent in the story, just as Nathan could not convert the natives from their tribal