Essays on The Poisonwood Bible

From 1979 to 1986, the University of Minnesota studied 136 pairs of twins to determine whether our personalities are innate or nurtured. The results were staggering: the scientists concluded that just about 70 percent of our character and psychological disposition comes from birth. But even more than that, these traits are deeply rooted within the actions we take leaving behind the question of what truly commands our fate — is it the genetics that are passed down or the unimpeded…...

In her feminist novel The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver portrays the Price family’s journey through Congo as they seek salvation while they ironically embark on a mission to purify the heathens of Africa. Living in a corrupt and oppressive world filled with capitalism, violence, and torments only intensified by her father Nathan’s ignorance, the only way to achieve independence for Leah is purification through rain that can wash away all the wrongs. Through her usage of rain metaphors, Kingsolver portrays…...

The Poisonwood Bible serves to depict and demonstrate the cultural divide between America and Africa. The cultural divide does not only signify a racial difference between the characters, but it also exemplifies the cultural that transgresses in every American. Earlier within the Poisonwood Bible it is referenced how the women lived in places other than Africa itself. It is apparent to the reader that there is a prevalent divide between the country of Africa and America. When the entire American…...

Barbara Kingsolver sets her novel, The Poisonwood Bible, amid the authentic Congolese Independence Movement, especially the underlying journey for freedom. Following a minister from Georgia and his family, the novel portrays the troublesome relationship between both the locals and the outside 'Western' people groups and among the Congolese themselves. Kingsolver describes her novel as a story that came from passion, culpability, anger, and a long-term fascination with Africa. Since she was a child who spent a part of her life…...

Why did Kingsolver create Adah to be what she is? Based on the information already provided on the Price family, I feel Kingsolver made Adah out to be “different” as a way of proving the family’s biggest sin: rejection of God’s children. Although Adah had been born with a mental disability, I feel that she was made out to be the strongest and most intelligent in the family. As she learns the quickest and no matter what has happened to…...