poisonwood_review_2

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//The Poisonwood Bible// Written by Barbara Kingsolver Published in 1998 ======


 * [[image:photo_lg_congo.jpg width="354" height="252" align="right"]]Historical context:**

The outrage of the United States ruining the Congo's independence- Barbara Kingsolver wrote a lot of //The Poisonwood Bible// based on her negative feelings about American interference in the Congo. When the Congo finally achieved its independence from Belgium, the United States set up a CIA mission and killed the first elected prime minister for its own economic and personal benefit.


 * Literary movement:**

__The Poisonwood Bible__ illustrates the postcolonial movement in literary history [4]. Postcolonialism, a subdivision of the exceptionally broad “cultural studies” genre [1], can be further broken down into three scenarios that critics consider acceptable:


 * After a nation is colonized, its people experience difficulty forming a new national and cultural identity. The colonized people, after abandoning some of their original pre-colonization culture and accepting (often unwillingly) the settlers’ way of life, struggle to return to their original traditions, languages and religions, often questioning whether or not it’s possible to completely revert to the way things were before colonization.
 * When a nation is colonized, the settlers often have a disproportionate amount of power over the natives. They often have influences over the colonized country, such as technology and a strong military, that make it nearly impossible for the natives to reject the colonists’ efforts. Even after a nation manages to become independent again, the power the colonists once held remains in the fact that the natives’ culture has been eroded until it is barely recognizable. This type of postcolonialism calls into question the idea of power and who possesses it.
 * After a nation has been “civilized” and the colonizing nation abandons it, the natives are forced to reform their identities and find their niche in the new culture. Unlike the first example, which calls the nation’s collective identity into question, this example focuses on the individuals whose lives have changed during the course of their colonialist period [3].

Although __The Poisonwood Bible__ is not written from the point of view of the natives, as most postcolonial literary works are, it still meets the criteria of all three examples. Though written from an American perspective, the characters still effectively document the struggle that the natives faced in trying to combine their own traditions with the new ways of life that were presented to them by Nathan; the characters also managed to capture the struggle the natives faced in deciding whether they wanted to accept this new culture at all. Although the Price family, being American, was thought to have power at the beginning of the novel, all the characters question this by the end; the resistance that the natives showed makes it difficult to determine who was truly in power. Kingsolver makes it clear that she empathizes with the natives, considering them victims of colonialism as they are forced to accept a new culture into their own; she also writes her own interpretations of the third example, when at of the novel, the Prices are abandoned by the missionary group that supported them and are forced to realize that their old ways of life don’t apply to the Congo. They are victims of colonialism as well, being forced to individually question their role in society and attempt to survive in a culture they are unfamiliar with.


 * Cast of major characters:**
 * Nathan Price- Nathan is a baptist minister who starts the whole story. Volunteering for an assignment in Africa, he takes along his whole family and puts its safety at risk due to his own guilt. He is driven by his madness and feelings of guilt due to his army experience when he was the only one of his regime to escape a huge battle attack. Nathan allows his pride and personal conflict to affect his entire family as he tries to push the African village to accept his mission statement of God. Nathan is a very stubborn man who does not change his mind even when danger is present.


 * Orleanna Price- Kind of like the narration of the novel, Orleanna's chapters in the beginning of each section allow her to reflect on what has happened in Africa and the experience her family has gone through. Her passages give a perspective of the book that's different from her children's point of view, and they also act as foreshadowing; she refers to the death of Ruth May before the reader reaches that part of the story, causing the reader to anticipate the sorrow that the family is doomed to be exposed to. Once a carefree woman, Orleanna is beaten down by her husband's crazy views and mission in Africa. Although the novel displays her being put down, throughout the book she progresses to act on her own and protect her children.


 * Rachel Price- Rachel is the most materialistic of the four daughters. While in Africa, it is clear that all Rachel wants to do is live a normal teenage life and is naive to many of the things going on around her. She remains a static character, motivated by her looks and status in life. Although Rachel is materialistic, she is not really a bright girl, which can be seen when she tries to use intelligent words that come out as malaprops. However, she is the only character in the novel to truly understand that the Price family does not belong in the Congo. She asserts from the very beginning that her father wouldn't succeed in changing the natives, instead acknowledging that the Congo would change the family.


 * Adah Price- Adah gives a completely different point of view in the story due to her brain condition (hemiplegia) that causes the left side of her body to not function normally. Being the twin of Leah, Adah must adapt to her own way of life as her sister is seen as the gifted one. Adah often separates herself from the rest of the world, creating her own languages by speaking English backwards. While she is seen as 'partially' there, she clearly recognizes whats going on around her and sees the world with a scientific eye.


 * Leah Price- Leah is a very intelligent person in the family. Following her school work and her father on his religious mission, she slowly loses her beliefs. While you can see her changing throughout the novel, her morals and ideas about others remain embedded in her and allows her to stay in the jungle as an adult and help Congolese families. She acts as the most reliable narrator of events in the novel, giving the most unbiased story out of all the characters.


 * Ruth May Price- The youngest of the daughters, and the one to be killed, Ruth May offers a younger perspective of the situation. Her grammar mistakes and immature attitudes allow the reader to realize t[[image:BK.jpg align="right"]]hat Ruth May is truly just a little girl in a terrible situation. Although Ruth May is little and scared of things in the jungle, her adventurous spirit allows her to befriend the children in the village and recognize spying and situations going on within the community.


 * Nelson- A young boy, and Anatole's brightest student, who helps the Price family with chores in the jungle.


 * Anatole- The young native school teacher in the novel that helps the Prices get along in the jungle. He is one of the only allies of the family and helps them study and forms a bond with Leah, later becoming her husband. Anatole is a political man with compassion.


 * Eeben Axelroot- A missionary and CIA pilot who is involved in the overthrow of the elected Prime Minister in the Congo. He is an extremely immoral character who uses his plane to get what he wants from the Prices. For example, he refuses to give the Prices their mail without some sort of exchange from them. He eventually gets involved with Rachel to save her from Tata Ndu and takes her out of the Congo in his plane.


 * Tata Ndu- The village chief who makes the Prices' time in the Congo very difficult because of his dislike of Nathan's moral traditions.


 * Tata Kuvudundu- The old medicine man in the village who dislikes the Prices' presence very much. He indirectly kills Ruth May when he leaves a green mamba snake in their yard that was meant to kill Nelson.


 * Brother Fowles- The missionary in place before Nathan and his family arrive. He is compassionate and has a close bond with the people of the Congo as he understands their deep roots, unlike Nathan.


 * Explanation of central conflict:**

Nathan's guilt and its effect on his family. As the novel begins, we see Nathan bring his family into the Congo on a religious mission. His mission is fueled by the guilt he feels for being the only one to survive an army raid with his troops. Although Orleanna and his daughters realize he is going too far in the Congo and dragging everyone down with him, he cannot see his own flaw. Rather than listen to his family begging to go home and the villagers' warnings of dangers, he ultimately ruins his family by keeping them there. With the //nsongonya//, the green mamba snake warnings, and finally Ruth May's death, Nathan continues to keep his family in the Congo. While Nathan is left to pursue his mission and his guilt, the rest of the family is left dealing with the effects of this situation that bring each of them to separate places in life. Nathan finally dies in the Congo after his family leaves due to his ignorance toward those around him. He is chased out of town by the natives and then burns to death in a fire that the natives set near him.


 * Explanation of central themes:**


 * Extreme guilt leads man on a reckless journey to relief that eventually ends in the destruction of himself and others.
 * Nathan's guilt causes his complete ignorance to his situation. He does not see that his whole family is suffering and he does not understand that the Congolese do not want to accept his beliefs. Ruth May would not have faced death at such an early age if she hadn't been forced to live in Africa by her father. Nathan is so caught up in his desire to 'help' others in order to make himself feel better that he takes it too far and is deserted by his family and then killed by the Congolese.


 * During times of great change, man loses faith in his comfortable beliefs and adapts to a new way of life.
 * Living in Africa greatly affects the Price women's perspective of life. They all change differently after losing faith in what they previously believed. Rachel is used to being a spoiled brat, but in Africa she learns that although she thinks the world revolves around her, others do not, and she becomes more independent. Leah loses faith in her religious beliefs when she observes that the Congolese act negatively toward Nathan's mission. Adah faces the fact that she needs to depend on herself in order to get through the hard times of life, as seen in the //nsongonya// scene. Ruth May loses faith in life when she gets sick and eventually gives up the will to live. Orleanna learns that she must stand up for herself and do what is right for her and her daughters.


 * Key quotations:**

//"Maybe I'll even confess the truth, that I rode in with the horsemen and beheld the apocolypse, but still I'll insist I was only a captive witness. What is the conqueror's wife if not a conquest herself?// (9)[2]//"// -- In one of the first pages of the book, Orleanna talks about the conquest that has taken place before the reader even knows the whole story. This quotation is important because it displays Orleanna's guilt about what happened in the Congo, as well as displaying the conflict between her and Nathan, and the United States conquering the Congo. Her use of "conqueror" is a play on words, referring to Nathan as both a pawn in the United States' desire to colonize the Congo and as a man who considered his wife to be property rather than a partner.

//"Certainly it wasn't my place to scrutinize God's great plan, but what about the balancing scales of justice?// (28)[2]//"// -- This quote by Leah helps display the theme of loss of faith. Leah, the most religious daughter compared to the other three daughters, begins questioning God and her faith, emphasizing that in the Congo, the family is losing their beliefs. Rather than just agree with her father, Leah finds herself questioning what she was brought up to believe, beginning the thought that maybe religion isn't the only thing that should hold weight in her life.

//"Methuselah was a sly little representative of Africa itself, living openly in our household. One might argue, even, that he was here first// (60)[2]." -- The symbolism of Methuselah as Africa helps display the issue of conquest throughout the novel. The fact that Nathan has a problem with Methuselah as the United States has a problem with Africa helps form parallels between the two subjects. Adah, the one who provides this insight, is the voice of reason here, with some sarcasm when saying "even, that he was here first", expressing the idea that he //was// there first, just like Africa was there first and that conquest is completely unreasonable.

//"From the very first moment I set foot in the Congo, I could see that we were not in charge// (515-516)[2].//"// -- Despite Rachel's static characterization in the novel, she is the only one to see from the beginning that the Price family lacks control over the Congo. Nathan approaches the situation believing that he has the ability to change the natives' way of life, bringing Jesus into their community and redeeming himself as the hero he wishes to be; Orleanna and the other three daughters fail to recognize how drastic Nathan's failure will be. Rachel, on the other hand, emphasizes- and foreshadows- the Price family's failure to convince the village to reject their original culture and traditions. In the end, the family is forced to either adapt to the Congolese way of life or return to the United States; they learn that they do not possess the power to change an entire culture, and realize that they do not necessarily have the right to try; Nathan is the only exception to this, and his blindness to this fact is his fatal flaw.


 * Pivotal scenes:**


 * * **The //nsongonya//- The swarm of ants invades Kilanga and each Price daughter has a different story. Leah gets up without thinking and leaves her family to save herself, and then feels guilty for leaving everyone behind. Rachel also tries to save herself, putting others in danger in order to do so, and realizes in the end that no one looks out for her besides herself. Ruth May chooses this moment to think of her "good place" because she thinks she is going to die in this chaos. Adah calls this night her "life's dark center" because this is when her mother chooses to carry Ruth May and leave Adah behind, even though she has a limp and can barely run from the ants. All of these situations portray the Price daughters losing faith: Leah loses faith in herself, Rachel loses faith in her family and friends, Ruth May loses faith in life, and Adah loses faith in her mother.


 * * **Ruth May's death- The death of the youngest daughter brings Orleanna back to reality. Rather than sit back as the quiet wife, she finally puts her foot down and begins to find the strength necessary to save the rest of her daughters. She takes the children, leaving Nathan on his own and finding the will to try and protect what is left of her family.


 * * **Orleanna and the rest of the Price girls desert Nathan- After Ruth May's death, the women of the family finally leave Nathan and his problems behind. By leaving Nathan and the village, the three daughters and Orleanna are left to face the effects of their experience in the Congo and the guilt that haunts them. This point of the novel allows the three daughters to go in their own directions to cope with what has happened.

**References:**
[1] Brians, Paul. ""Postcolonial Literature": Problems with the Term." __World Literature Index__. 05 Jan 2006. 28 Apr 2008 <[|http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/anglophone/postcolonial.html>. [2] Kingsolver, Barbara. __The Poisonwood Bible__. Harper Collins, 2003.

[3] "Postcolonial Literature." __Wikipedia__. 28 Apr 2008 <[|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcolonial_literature#cite_note-adv-1>.

[4] Zwicker, Heather. "English 281: Introduction to Postcolonial Literatures." 2000. University of Alberta. 28 Apr 2008 <[|http://www.ualberta.ca/~hzwicker/281.htm>.]