The Poisonwood Bible

Overview

Day One:

Character Descriptions: basic overview

Plot Summary and relationship analysis

Analysis of text

Day Two:

Evaluative Comments

Audience Comments and Questions

"Mother May I"

The Poisonwood Bible

Barbara Kingsolver

A literary analysis

Adah "Benduka" Price

By Callie Todhunter, Leanna Kantt, Alyssa Valentyn, Sarah Perfit, Carolyn Galebach, Katelyn Crowley, and Eunice Bruno

• Leah's twin sister
• Silent observer
• Selective mute and hemoplegic on left side
• Very cynical
• Atheist
• "My sisters all seem determined to fly, or in Rachel's case, to ascend to heaven directly through a superior mindset, but my way was slowly and surely to walk." Adah, page 136
• "Tall and straight I may appear, but I will always be Ada inside. A crooked little person trying to tell the truth. The power is in the balance: we are our injuries, as much as we are our successes." Adah, page 496

Thematic Connections

Allusion to Bible

Vision

• Adah and the girls have clear vision
• Nathan is obscured

"There was Father in his dark bedroom doorway looking out. All you can see was his eyes peeking out."

Light vs. Dark

• In Nathan's first sermon, talks about "darkness of the soul" Rachel, page 27

"...while Father moved around the circle baptizing each child in turn, imploring the living progeny of Kilanga to walk forward into the light" Leah, page 375

• description of N: has a "heart of darkness"
• Lumumba: Africa is the "heart of light"

• Names of books
• Names of characters
• Recap:
• The Flood
• Methuselah
• Adah and the Lion
• Nathan wants to be Job - testing faith
• Ruth May

• Religion
• move faith from God to the natural world
• "When I finally got up with sharp grains imbedded in my knees, I found, to my surprise, that I no longer believed in God." Adah, pg. 171
• "Jesus Christ lost 11 to 56." Leah, page 334
• American egoism and overbearing nature
• "We are supposed to be calling the shots here, but it doesn’t look to me like we’re in charge of anything, not even our own selves."Rachel, page 22

Leah "Beene Beene" Price

Anatole Ngemba

• Schoolteacher
• Scarred face
• Believed everyone has a right to the truth
• Orphan
• Disagrees with Nathan but translates his sermons
• Voice of the Kilanga community
• Leah's husband

• Adah's twin
• Originally idolized her father
• Strong-minded, intelligent, tomboyish. "I've always been the one for outdoor chores anyway, burning the trash and weeding, while my sisters squabbled about the dishes and such" Leah, page 35
• Eager to learn about Congolese culture
• Marries Anatole
• Straightforward speaker, incorporation of Congolese language

Nathan Price

• Baptist preacher and missionary
• Fiery, aggressive, and irrational
• Purple Heart Recipient, traumatized in Vietnam war
• Cruel and aggressive toward family
• No narration, but described as passionate and even violent when speaking
• Does not understand Congolese culture or language
• Symbolic of American and European involvement in Africa

Orleanna Price

Ruth May Price

Congolese Language

• Nathan's wife, mother of Rachel, Leah, Adah and Ruth May
• Bad relationship with husband - lives in fear
• Feels guilty
• Consistently addresses Ruth May ("little beast")

• Youngest
• Free-spirited and innocent
• Befriended the Congolese children
• Strong attachment to Orleanna and Leah
• Orleanna's favorite
• Provides climax of story
• Childish diction, run-on sentences and poor grammar
• Constantly quotes parents and siblings

• "kakaka"
• hurry up
• A term for the E.coli bacteria
• "muntu"
• concept of the unity and interconnectedness of life.
• "kintu"
• animals
• stones
• bottles
• "hantu"
• place
• time
• "kuntu"
• a quality of being

Linguistics

Orleanna

Rachel

Leah

Adah

Ruth May

Rachel "Mvula" Price

• Oldest
• Vain, materialistic, never tried to understand Congolese culture
• Engaged to Eeben Axelroot
• Two other marriages
• Equatorial Hotel
• Malopropism, poor grammar, teenage slang
• Never outgrew ignorance, hate and racism
• "You still think you’re the epicenter of a continent, don’t you Princess?" Axelroot, page 293
• “All I want is to go home, and start scrubbing the deep seated impurities of the Congo out of my skin.” Rachel, page 178

Minor Characters

• Methuselah
• Underdowns
• Nelson
• Mama Tataba
• Brother Fowels
• Eeben Axelroot
• Tata Ndu
• Tata Kuvundu
• Pascal
• Elizabet
• Leah and Anatole's sons
• Pascal
• Patrice
• Martin
• Natan

The Poisonwood Bible

Symbols

Genesis

• The Things We Carried (Kilanga, 1959)

The Revelation

• The Things We Learned (Kilanga, June 30, 1960)

• Methuselah
• "Feathers at last at last and no words at all." Adah, page 186
• the Garden
• "Perhaps we've eaten of the wrong fruits in the Garden, because our family always seems to know too much, and at the same time not enough." Leah, page 103
• allusion to the Garden of Eden
• Poisonwood tree
• Nathan mistakes the word "bangala"
• "That one, brother, he bite...Poisonwood" Mama Tataba, page 39
• Ruth May
• symbol of Eve
• After died of the serpent's bite, the rest of the family left the Congo- Exodus
• symbol of Jesus
• Sacrifice for her family

The Judges

• The Things We Didn't Know (Kilanga, September 1960)

Bel and the Serpant

• What We Lost (Kilanga, January 17, 1961)

Exodus

• What We Carried Out (Bulungu, 1961)

The Song of the Three Children

The Eyes in the Trees

The Seven Deadly Sins

Rachel: Pride, Greed

Leah: Lust, Wrath

Adah: Sloth

Orleanna: Sloth

Nathan: Wrath, Pride

Anatole: Wrath

Ruth May: nothing...

By Barbara Kingsolver

Foreshadowing

• Methuselah's death
• "Africa, where one of my children remains in the dark red earth" Orleanna, pg 87
• "It’s a heavenly paradise in the Congo, and sometimes I want to live here forever." Leah, pg 104.
• "Orleanna Price, Southern Baptist by marriage, mother of children living and dead" Orleanna, page 7.
• "Why why why, they sang, the mothers who staggered down our road behind small tightly wrapped corpses, mothers crazy-walking on their knees, with mouths open wide like a hole ripped in mosquito netting. That mouth hole! Jagged torn place in their spirits that lets the small flying agonies pass in and out. Mothers with eyes squeezed shut, dark cheek muscles tied in knots, heads thrashing from side to side as they passed." Adah, pg. 296.