The Poisonwood Bible

"For women like me, it seems, it’s not ours to take charge of beginnings and ending...I only know the middle ground where we live our lives....To resist occupation, whether you’re a nation or merely a woman, you must understand the language of your enemy. Conquest and liberation and democracy and divorce are words that mean squat, basically, when you have hungry children and clothes to get out on the line, and it looks like rain." -Orleanna, (383)

"I was blinded by the constant looking back: Lot's wife. I only ever saw the gathering clouds." (98)

"...fathers like Nathan who simply can see no way to have a daughter but to own her like a plot of land. To work her, plow her under, rain down a dreadful poison upon her. . . Oh, a wife may revile such a man with every silent curse she knows. But she can't throw stones. A stone would fly straight through him and strike the child. . . You understand that the thing you love more than this world grew from a devil's seed. It was you who let him plant it. The day does come, finally, when a daughter can walk away from a man such as that - if she's lucky. . . She'll be talking to you, her mother, . . . 'how could you let him? why?" (192)

"In our everyday life, there is enlightenment and ignorance. You cannot escape from ignorance to attain enlightenment, because enlightenment is not somewhere else . . . to know what is ignorance is enlightenment . . . to be ignorant about enlightenment is ignorance." (102, Dogen's "Genjo Koan")

.

"Women are dehumanized to the point of being considered property. . . considered either less than human or something that is owned and can thus be used however the owner desires. Cultural view of women . . ." (Rape in the Congo, 33-34)

"He smacked her hard for the sin of pride. . . when she put her hand down you could see the bruise just as plain. It looked like Father was holding his hand in front of a kerosene light and making a shadow on her. But he wasn't, he was in the other room a-reading the Bible." (156)

"I always watch his hands to see which way they're going to strike out. But Mother's shallow-water eyes stayed on his face, without really looking at it." (134)

". . . dismayed by the failure of Jesus to protect us, they opted to steer clear." (417)

Theme of life within death: myth that owls eat the souls of dead children and they live on through them.

Ruth May died, but lives as her voice is heard after her death in the book. She is implied to be a green mamba snake on a tree branch: a creature that fascinated her, and ironically, a creature that ended up taking her life.

"Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" (John 11:25-26)

Ruth knew about Jesus what her Father taught her, but she wasn't old enough to understand the curruption that Nathan attached to the subject, therefore, she is the only one innocent enough to love Jesus for what he truly is : therefore, go on living after her death.

Gender issues

-know that Nathan doesn't see females as equal

-likely that if Ruth was a boy, he would not have ignored her; given her much more special care

"It's just lucky for Father he never had any sons. He might have been forced to respect them." (337)

"I lean my face against the cool wall and kiss its old stones in praise of captivity, because it's only my being here and his being in prison that saves us both for another chance at each other. " (419)

The Poisonwood Bible

PROCESS

- brilliant

-creative

-lots of leeway with artsy things

-not as structured as essay; more flow to it

-able to jump back and forth between points and connect things nicely

Author: Barbara Kingsolver

- Has lived in the Congo when she was a child

Setting: Village in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Time: 1959-1986 [note: revolution happened in 1960]

Characters: Baptist minister as a missionary and family

- Husband (Nathan Price), his wife (Orleanna) & 4 daughters

(Rachel, Leah, Adah, Ruth May)

LIFE

DEATH

THESIS

Nathan's obsession with religion made him choose to stay in the Congo when they were told to leave as a war was beginning.

Nathan's obsession with the one who's death represents life is the reason he remained in a situation where life is very close to death (conditions-wise) because of people dying for others to live - ultimately resulting in death in his own life.

Religion is the root of tragic ironies that result in chaos for the Price family throughout their stay in the Congo.

Shows Nathan's -

WORKS CITED

• Control over his family
• his Pride
• his Faith in Jesus: "He'll protect us" attitude

An Irony:

Happiest, purest, most innocent member of the Price family dies first.

Line of Approach

"So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen." (Matthew 20:16)

Following the theme of Jesus disappointing people and not living up to expectations (thanks to Nathan)...

American Jesus. Perf. Bad Religion. Youtube. Epitaph Records, 1 June 2007. Web. 3 May 2014.

Bloomfield, Lincoln P., and Allen Moulton. "Cascon Case CON: Congo (Katanga) 1960-63."MIT, 1999. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.

Calvin and Hobbes Ignorant. N.d. Photobucket. Web. 14 May 2014.

Doe, J. (2005). A Woman's Role in the 1950's. 1st ed.

Dogen, Eihei. Dogen's Genjo Koan: Three Commentaries. Trans. Nishiari Bokusan. Berkeley: Publishers Group West, 2011. 101-102. Print.

Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi 1943 Propaganda Film. Dir. Walt Disney. World News. TheBestFilmArchives, 21

Aug. 2012. Web. 6 May 2014.

Holy Bible: King James Version. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2012. Print.

Jaggi, Maya. "A Life in Writing: Barbara Kingsolver." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 12 June 2010. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.

Kingsolver, Barbara. The Poisonwood Bible. NY: HarperPerennial Modern Classics, 1999. Print.

Monster Hospital. Perf. Metric. Youtube. LastGangRadio, 12 Apr. 2013. Web. 28 May 2014.

Parsons, Lizzie. "The Culture of Women." RSS-Audio and Written Essays. Global Witness, n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.

Rape in a Lawless Land. Dir. Leah Chishugi. Perf. Leah Chishugi; Congolese Women. Democratic Republic of the Congo. The

Guardian, n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.

Tarawa Beach. 1943. World War Casualties. Web. 24 May 2014.

"Timothy Leary Quotes." Timothy Leary Quotes. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 May 2014.

The chaos that is sparked by religion shows itself through the inversion of simple concepts such as enlightenment, captivity, death and the idea of a 'saviour' with an underlying theme of control and authority that causes suffering and thus, the inversions.

Killers

Saviours

Jesus the Saviour turns out to be the Killer

IRONY: Title of the book itself.

Enlightenment

Ignorance

SAFETY

CAPTIVITY

Nathan is convinced that he is enlightened

Ironic result: becomes ignorant to everything

"Monotheism is the primitive religion which centers human consciousness on Hive Authority. There is one God and his name is ____ (substitute hive-label). If there is only one God then there is no choice, no option, no selection of reality. There is only submission or heresy. The word 'Islam' means 'submission'. The basic posture of Christianity is kneeling.

Thy will be done."

- Form of Control

Jesus is meant as a saviour and not as a poison; however that is precisely what he becomes due to Nathan's ignorance.

- cause: Religion which (IRONICALLY) provides safety for the captive subject

Ironic Proof: bangala conundrum

destruction of Orleanna's sanity

Cause: oppression by husband

examples:

Nathan, parrot, Leah & Anatole's situation

"Jesus is poisonwood!" (490)

1. Nathan's carelessness towards his own family vs. need to push Christ on people

RESULTS

- Ruth died, unbaptized. Nathan ignores her. Baptizes others.

death of his youngest daughter

loss of respect from community

• died of snakebite

"The people of your congregation are . . . people who have shamed themselves or had very bad luck. . . Their luck could not get any more bad . . . so they are interested to try making sacrifices to your Jesus." (129)

"He was going to baptize his own child along with all of Kilanga's, on that great day down at the river when his dream finally came true. It would lend an appearance of sincerity to the occasion." (368-369)

"Father would sooner watch us all perish one by one than listen to anybody but himself." (169)

- Timothy Leary's "The Intelligence Agents"

Nathan's obsession with Jesus funnels down to an obsession with baptism - ongoing theme seen throughout the book

Nathan uses religion as a means of CONTROL over his family and Congolese community

-even though the Congolese repel this control, Nathan doesn't understand and keeps pushing

Control blinds him to the point of believing, among other things, that women are inferior

• ironic as they are the main workforce in the villages AND his own family.
• Even though they're supposed to be "white and civilized", the women in his family are just as oppressed as in the rest of the Congo

2 significant scenarios that portray Jesus as a killer more than a saviour through the efforts of Nathan Price:

that quote from Enlightenment vs ignorance

2. Nathan wanting to baptize all the kids in the village in the river

- this obsession ends up dooming him

'"He was probably still preaching hell and brimstone over his shoulder while he ran!" Which is true.' (486)

He got The Verse - Maccabees 13:4 on page 487

Continuing with the theme of death...

"exercising his authority"

"overwhelming millions every day"

"one nation under God"

Going with the theme of safety through restricted freedom..