Barbara Kingsolver’s historical novel, The Poisonwood Bible, takes place during the Congo’s struggle for independence and is narrated through Orleana, the wife of a fiery, cold-hearted missionary, and their four daughters. The story follows the fortunes of these four young Price sisters brought to the Congo by their father Nathan and his long-suffering wife Orleana. The mother struggles with hardships of their daily life and she is basically their leader. She scrambles to make ends meet and tries to protect her family from the terrors of the jungle. As they grow up, the sisters are defined by their changing attitudes toward Africa, their father, and each other. Each of their stories reveal the amazing forty-year saga that the Prices and the Congo share.
The author uses the garden as a symbol in her in literary work that emphasizes the meaning of the novel. It seems that as the Reverend Nathan Price struggles hopelessly with his non indigenous crops, he also struggles in his effort to plant the concept of Baptism in Kilanga. In several ways, gardens and gardening are symbolic. Nathan Price begins his mission to save the souls of the Kilangan children and at the same time spends his free moments attempting to cultivate a piece of land with seeds he brought from his home in Georgia. Kingsolver writes, “His devotion to (the garden’s) progress was like his devotion to the church” (63).
The connection is in that the seeds he plants are also like his speeches. It is clear that his methods of gardening had little use in the tropical forest. Therefore, his method of gardening resembles his method of religion. The small plot of land that he attempted to cultivate symbolizes the new land of Kilanga which he has intruded in. His failure in his garden is like his failure to his church. It is evident that his character is struggling to compete his the unforseen events and features of Africa. His attempt to adapt in terms of the garden is not easy and therefore exemplifies the family’s hardship.
The Essay on Steady Oil Price Hike
The article about the rising oil price indicates two main economic concepts: first, “the rule of supply and demand”, and second, that” human wants is insatiable. ” Oil is a natural resource and it is created by nature through thousands of years. Time is a very important element in the production of oil. Despite the fact that oil wells and rigs are discovered and/or pumped, still, the natural ...
Orleana, the wife of Nathan Price is a victim of marriage and motherhood. She is a strong woman who finally achieves freedom and solitude after leaving her husband. The garden is also symbolic in her case. The natural ability to grow plants which her husband lacked is suddenly found in her soul. Kingsolver writes, “She seemed determined to grow tragedy out of herself” (408).
In the instance, plants and gardens symbolize Orleana as a person. “She was an entire botanical garden waiting to happen”(410).
The author’s words are used to describe Orleana’s situation which was reflective of her marriage. Her potential for joy and freedom and beauty is smothered by partnership. She is unlike the women of her time. Independency and being single are important to her as a character. Also, Kingsolver writes, “I’d cut it out of a magazine and nailed it over the plank counter where I kneaded the bread . . . I remember every detail of him: the clear-rimmed glasses and spotted tie, the broad smile, the grandfatherly bald head like a warm, bright light bulb. He looked so trustworthy and kind. A beacon from home, reminding me of out purpose” (420).
Orleana’s words are similar to the manner in which she describes the early days of her marriage. In the beginning there was still room for laughter in her husband’s eyes. After this trip to Africa everything changed in her life as well as her families. Nothing will ever be the same because Nathan Price has changed into a different man dedicated to changing the souls of Africa.
The daughters of the Prices have also changed as well. Each of the sisters are unique in their own ways and have chosen to adapt to the new environment differently. Leah’s struggles to re balance herself as a person is done when she realized who her father has turned into because of their trip in Africa. She said, “My father wears his faith like the bronze breastplate of God’s foot soldiers, while our mother’s is more like a good cloth coat with a secondhand fit”(433).
The Term Paper on Examine the Reasons for Changes in the Patterns of Marriage, Cohabitation and Divorce
“Examine the reasons for changes in the patterns of marriage, divorce and cohabitation over the past 40 years. ” The patterns of marriage, divorce and cohabitation over the past 40 years has varied considerably. In 1972, over 480,000 couples got married subsequently making this the highest amount of marriages within a year ever since the Second World War. According to the Office for National ...
She has seen her father as someone she doesn’t know anymore. Leah, was probably the most changed out of all the sisters. In the end of the novel she says, “I am the un-missionary, as Adah would say, beginning each day on y knees, asking to be converted. Forgive me, Africa, according to the multitudes of thy mercies” ( 420).
It seems like she was probably the most effected and instead of taking the change in a negative view, she saw the positive perspective of it. The novel changed the whole family and they all competed with the claims of the environment as well as their own individual will.
