Poisonwood Bible and Essential Questions
53
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"They say you thatched your roof and now you must not run out of your house if it rains"
"There are so many answers. All of them are faultless, and none good enough." - Orleanna Price, "The Judges"
Tip
But in my dreams I still have hope,...
and in life, no safe retreat. If i have to hop all the way on one foot, damn it, I'll find a place I can claim as home.
Orleanna
Nathan
Orleanna is self conscious and doesn't stand up to Nathan. Her insecurities are shown by how she won't leave Nathan even when he puts their entire family in danger
he treats everyone like crap. he is a bully and bullies usually are the biggest cowards, and he was a coward in the war and afterwards
Nathan doesn't treat his guests with respect and does not take the time to listen to other people's opinions before answering.
He's very selfish and commands his family to obey him and go by what he says. Just because he is a preacher he believes his word is law.
Rachel treats people with disgust and often contempt. She only associates with people that can benefit her and help her survive. This treatment towards others depicts Rachels superior attitude. Rachel thinks she is better and above the natives as well as her family. This can be seen in the way she flees with Axelroot and has no regards to her family.
The way she innocently
interacts with everyone, even
people who the rest of her family
avoid at first due to culture barriers,
shows that she is naive to racial
and culture issues.
Rachel
How does one's treatment of others reveal your own character?
Ruth May
she treats people like they are trash under her feet, which shows that she is snotty and selfish
she treats all people equally which shows she's not a judgemental person
Leah
Adah
... small
"Betrayal is a friend I have known a long time, a two-faced goddess looking forward and back with a clear, earnest suspician of good fortune."
Leah turns out to be like her mother (who she didn't appreciate as much as her father) by taking care of her kids.
Adah exludes herself from society, thus ostracizeing her family from her life.
Leah makes an effort to understand and protect the rights of the Congolese people. This shows that she is open minded and caring
She doesn't really talk to anyone which reveals that she is a very private person.
By coming to the Congo, Nathan transforms into someone that the Congolese despise due to the influence Westerners have had on their country as a whole and the individual lives they live. He is so focused on civilizing and converting the natives, he turns his family away.
Nathan
The conflicts that took place in the Congo were chump change compared to the struggles Orleanna Price experienced throughout her life. By the end of the book, she became a shell of a person obsessed with the death of Ruth May.
Rachel is quite possibly the most static character in the story. Her ordeal in the Congo did little more than to cause her to realize that life is not the shallow existence she participated in in Georgia.
Nathan
Nathan is an example of the biased character an author uses in their work and portrays the typical radical southern baptist.
For example: Nathan takes his baptistism to another level by taking the children out on the boat to baptize them and a crocodile tips the boat over killing the children.
Rachel
Orleanna
Nathan cares nothing for the cultural interests of the Congolese and demands his way be followed. Due to the fact that he was unable to compromise, his family deserted him and he completely lost control of his own mind.
Rachel was forced into an arranged marriage because of the financial situation of the Price family and her need for shampoo. -14 Kid
After Ruth May's death, Orleanna gave away all the worldly things that made them appear rich in the congo.
Orleanna
Ruth May observed and learned from the conflicts and relationships around her, including the political situation heard second or third-hand from the doctor who set her arm. As she is still young conflicts such as these do not have much of an impression.
Ruth May
Rachel
How do authors use characters to convey a certain perspective that may even be biased or political?
How can cultural conflicts shape a person?
she is sort of the one looking back on all that's happened so she helps foreshadow events in each book
Ruth May
She was the child that really didn't take a side, she just observed and reported
Rachel is used to describe the stereotypical American girl, with her vanity and her indifference to the native people.
Ruth May is an unbiased character because she is too young to have an opinion on what is going on. She just reports it like it is.
"If somebody was hungry, why would they have a big fat belly? I don't know."
Throughout her life, Adah took on the role of cheated martyr, subject to the ambition of her twin sister, Leah. By living in the Congo and observing the struggles of the Congolese, she realizes that she doesn't have it so bad and to accept that she is how she is and to work past it. An example is their neighbor, Mama Mwanza, who had no legs; she still went about her business regardless of her disability.
Adah
Leah
Adah has a view that
is the opposite of most
people of the south, for
she is the farthest thing from
a southern christian girl.
By having Leah marry a native, the author gives the reader a biased insight against the outside governments trying to rule the Congo.
Adah conveys the negatives of religion in a very biased way
Adah
Leah faces the conflicts and makes them her own in that she struggles to make her father turn an approving eye on her. Nathan, in turn, is unwavering in his uncooperation in dealing with the natives, an issue with which Leah, although she may be loath to do so, must concur with, solely for the fact that Nathan is her father.
marrying Anatole
"we are our injuries, as much as we are our successes."
"The sting of a fly, the Congolese say, can launch the end of the world. How simply things begin." - Orleanna Price "The Revelation"
"I guess you might
say my hopes
never got off
the ground."
"Go to hell, Leah, just go straight, directly to hell"
"We would all have to escape Africa by a different route." - Orleanna Price "The Revelation"
Nathan cared only for his mission and his pride, to redeem a shame he earned in the war. His wife and four daughters, one of whom perished, have no precedence in his life except to be viewed as unnecessary evils.
Nathan
"Mother did not rant or tear her hair. She behaved as if someone else had already told her, before we got there." Orleanna distances herself from everyone and shuts down after Ruth May's death.
Orleanna
"And your father is giving a sermon about Pharoah's army and the plagues" He was preaching during the ant incident.
Throughout most of the book, Nathan seems to remain unimpacted by his family. All he cares about is his mission and he doesn't really pay any attention to them. At the end of book four, Nathan seems to finally be impacted by his family. The death of his daughter, followed by the rest of his family deserting him seems to unhinge him
Orleanna stayed with Nathan despite her resentment solely for her children and her love for them.
takes his family to the Congo
Nathan
Orleanna
she stayed with Nathan for her childrens' sake
She chose to give up her freedom in order to protect her kids and keep her family together
Orleanna reacted to many of the crises as would any good mother, taking control of the situation and taking care of business. In the event of the swarm of ants, however, we see
Orleanna reacted to many of the crises as would any good mother, taking control of the situation and taking care of business. In the event of the swarm of ants, however, we see piece of her darker self as she chooses to rescue Ruth May rather than Adah. When Ruth May is killed she all but snaps.
"She wasn't baptized yet." Nathan says this after Ruth May dies.
Rachel seems to care only for herself, even stating at the beginning of one of her entries that all of the Price family's problems are Leah's fault.
Nathan, even in the event of his youngest daughter's death, cares only for the immortal souls of the Congolese. When the real crises arrive he reacts by shouting Bible passages and condemning everyone who walks past.
Rachel
During the plague of ants many things about Orleanna's character were revealed. For one Orleanna had to choose between her youngest daughter and Adah. By choosing Ruth May, Orleanna offended and hurt Adah. Adah thought she was not perfect enough and that her handicap is what kept her from getting chosen. Later Orleanna chose Adah to be saved and taken back to the US.
Ruth May
well she seems to think that her family holds her back, so they impact how awesome she thinks she is
Rachel
Nathan was the cause of his family being in the Congo, which ended up being the cause of Ruth May's death. If they were not there then she would still be alive.
How does family impact an individual?
Her family treats her like she's not as smart as them, so she basically pretends that she is smarter than all of them as a defense mechanism
on the night of the ant attack, she proved how selfish she was by trying to save herself and not her sisters
Ruth May depended on her family to protect and love her, and she did not blame them for allowing her to die. While alive, she adored her sisters and mother while simultaneously fearing and parroting her father.
How do conflicts or crises reveal one's character?
In a moment of crisis, Rachel was more worried about losing her mirror than anything else. This event showed her selfishness and her worry about personal appearance rather than the survival of her family.
Ruth May
Adah
"I put my fingers in my ears and tried to think of the safest place."
Leah
Adah relaized that if it came down to choosing her or the youngest worthless child that can't do anything at her current age, the mother would choose her. This impacted her indivdual self worth.
Having little sisters made Leah realise that she needs to be the one who takes care of her younger sisters. She becomes something of a mother figure.
Adah has believed herself to be a martyr all of her life and all but resents her family for their inferior intellects. The death of Ruth May and Orleanna taking her back home to study medicine allows her to appreciate her family more than she has.
"we are our injuries, as much as we are our successes"
As Nathan is going about his selfish business and Orleanna is trying to make a home out of their situation, Leah takes on a new role as provider and protector of her siblings, including Rachel. Upon the occasion of Ruth May's death, she takes the blame and responsibility upon herself.
Her family impacted her choice of religion by teaching Christian beliefs but not following them. These acts of hypocrisy turned Adah away from Christianity so she turns to Science and logic.
Leah
Adah
the conflict of whether Leah was allowed to hunt or not showed how much Leah wanted independence from her father's rules
Leah never was very concerned
about returning to America until
Africa threatened her childrens'
health and well being.
On the night that the ants attacked, she used her voice for the first time which showed that she was just afraid to talk.
"Let others do the pushing and shoving, and you just ride along. In the end, the neck you save will be your own." -Rachel
"Misunderstanding is my cornerstone. It's everyone's , come to think of it. Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet. They are what we call civilization