Symbolism In The Poisonwood Bible
After I have read the Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I realized that there were multiple different symbols that helped convey complex ideas. For me I have found that in the Novel there are three important symbols that help shape the plot of the story and these are Methuselah the Parrot, Palindromes: Which is Ada’s journal, and lastly the green Mamba snake that killed Ruth May. The significance about all of these symbols is that they tend to add a meaning and depth to the story.
In the Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, the Price family forcefully goes on a journey to the Congo to assist Nathan, the fatherly head, in educating the people of the Congo about the word of God. Throughout the novel, Nathan uses the symbol of the bangala tree as a comparison to Jesus considering “bangala” means something precious and dear. However, the meaning of this word changes completely when spoken improperly. In the beginning of the novel Nathan's experiences of the time he spent in war are revealed, which causes him to be moved my selfish desires to save everyone.
The Poisonwood Bible explores multiple different meanings ranging from love and loyalty, to ignorance and political oppression. While it is a story of the journey of the Price family in the Congo, Kingsolver uses these narratives to draw a bigger picture of the geopolitics that are at play in the Congo. I think the overarching theme of the novel is ignorance and its opposite: empathy. We follow the journeys of ignorant characters such as Rachel and Nathan Price and are given a parallel with the journeys of Adah, Leah, and Orleanna. However Kingsolver showcases the realities of life here or beyond by the end of the novel where it is clear that none of the characters we met at the beginning would end up with lives that fulfilled all their dreams
In his Novel, Lord of the Flies William Golding tells a story of group of boys who are evaluated on a desert island with no grownups to guide their behavior. In the novel, there are 7 main characters: Ralph, Jack, Piggy, Simon, Roger , Sam, and Eric, in which they all try to find their way to survival on the paradise like island. In reality, this island is full of many challenges. Throughout their time on the island they discover that there might be an evil “snake like “ beast living on the island. While the boys try to find the beast, some of them get aggressive and savage-like, trying to take leadership.
“Herbal” by Nalo Hopkinson can be interpreted in many ways. Some readers may presume that the story talks about anxiety and depression, while others say it is about drugs and possibly abuse. I believe that the story is about the main character, Jenny, and her life with an abusive partner. The story shows that a victim in an abusive relationship will always have feelings for their partner, even when the partner is no longer in his or hers life. There 's always that desire for the abusive partner because our human nature is to desire and be desired by someone.
Diego Carbajal Miss Given World Literature 05 February 2018 Response Journal #3 Storytelling is an essential element in The Poisonwood Bible, it is specifically used to tell each side of one story. Using different points of views to get a various amount of opinions on an event that happened in the book. Kingsolver implements this in her book using the four girls and Orleanna. This gives the reader a vivid image of what is going on between every narrator telling their side of the story.
The song “Live Oak” by Jason Isbell has many different symbols and puns littered all around the lyrics. One of the symbols in the song is when Isbell sings the line, “There’s a man who walks beside me he is who I used to be”. This symbolizes that the narrator’s past is still haunting him, as if it is a man that walks beside him. In the song, Isbell sings, “Could it be the man who did the things I’m living down”. This is talking about how the narrator’s lover doesn’t see who he is now, but his past self.
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.
In her novel ‘The Poisonwood Bible,’ Barbara Kinsolver’s theme of sacrifice is shown through the character of Nathan Price. Nathan is a Baptist minister who sacrifices a life full of commodities to bring God’s gospel to Kilanga, a small village in the Congo. His sacrifice exhibits his appreciation for persistence, his arrogance, and the guilt and fear he carries with him. Nathan is used to explore colonial ideas and the way in which religion can be used to spread fear. Nathan Price values persistence by demonstrating his unwillingness to give up on his mission when things get difficult.
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 learns that doing things to please herself instead of her father makes her feel more accomplished and have that sense of worthiness that her father wasn’t giving her. Kingsolver uses these factors to get the audience to notice the change in Leah’s views and beliefs as the book proceeds on and as she grows up into a woman. Her relationship with her father is a lot like her relationship with God since she talks to both of them and neither of them ever respond directly to her. She feels unwanted and like a distraction to her father’s main purpose in life, which is to save people through the word of God. Her surroundings in the Congo begin to shape her morals and psychological beliefs that push her away from not only her father, but God as well.
Through the voices of five female narrators with contrasting perspectives, Barbara Kingsolver analyzes the extent to which imperialism affects the lives of indigenous populations and the lives of the imperialists. Each perspective places blame for the events of the novel on a different entity and each narrator feels a different degree of guilt for those events. The Poisonwood Bible’s secondary themes include the extent to which an environment affects the way that children grow up. This secondary theme creates the connection between familial dynamics and international relationships. While the novel paints a picture of imperialism by recounting the brief independence of the Congo, the relationship of the Price family and their interactions with Africa are more representative of the effects of imperialism on different types of people.
In Alan Paton’s compelling novel “Cry, The Beloved Country” published in 1948, he eloquently writes about the characters Stephen Kumalo and James Jarvis to tell a story with a momentous message about the effect of apartheid in South Africa. Paton expertly solidifies his dynamic and forceful writing in his novel with his uses of various literary elements like imagery, diction, allusions, motifs, and even the simplicity of his poetic writing voice. Although, in chapter 36 Alan Paton’s uses of biblical allusions and connotative diction serve to help the reader better understand and to highlight the change that is to come to the racial unjust country. Biblical allusions are all throughout the “Cry, The Beloved Country”, everywhere from names to direct quotations from holy scripture. Chapter 36 is no different with the presence of biblical allusions.
From Georgia to the Belgian Congo, a white southern missionary family during the late 1950’s moved to Africa with the hopes of exposing the native people to the Christian way of life. Throughout the novel, the Price family is met with many obstacles while trying to learn this new culture in which they were surrounded. Many of the obstacles were directly due to their ignorance of the country. A character in the novel, Leah Price, was faced with the challenge of following her father’s will but also assimilating to the people of Congo. Leah was the older twin, and a young, free-spirited, passionate girl who once worshipped her father and believed in his philosophy.
Throughout this novel Go tell it on the Mountain; James Baldwin examines the different roles of his characters in the Christian church, in the lives of African-Americans. In the context of the biblical language, gender roles; masculinity and femininity are rendered in indubitable. Because John considers the man in the woman on Sundays through a lens he adopts from things he has “read of in the Bible,” he understands men to be, and become strong or “mighty” whereas he interprets the women’s strength as “patient” and “long suffering.” Just as Florence's use of skin creams makes the real racialized constructions of beauty, so do Elizabeth’s actions make real for John traditional oppositional gender roles; Baldwin again emphasizes the interconnections
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