The Poisonwood Bible

The Poisonwood Bible has different viewpoints from four daughters and their mother of their lives in Africa. The father’s, who was a minister, viewpoint in the book was never offered. The detailed lives of each daughter and their mother gave a more complete understanding of the Congo and the harsh living conditions. The different viewpoints gave reason and better understanding of the traditions and lifestyle of being raised in Africa. The different viewpoints gave the reader a more thorough understanding of the book and the fascinating story that it told.

Throughout the book the father is viewed and commented on, but his own viewpoints were not discussed. It might have been helpful to hear the father’s viewpoint to understand why he was insistent against all odds to bring his wife and four daughters to Africa on a missionary trip. The father’s viewpoint also might have been helpful to understand why he refused to leave Africa when he should have.

One could only speculate that he was seeking a kind of redemption from what he had experienced in the war of losing the soldiers that he had served with. “Nathan’s company died, to the man, on the Death March from Bataan.” “He came home with a crescent-shaped scar on his temple, seriously weakened vision in his left eye, and a suspicion of his own cowardice from which he could never recover.” (197)

The father was described as angry and hostile, whose own religion was his only love. He risked everything including his family in his wasted efforts to cleanse and save all sinners in the name of Christianity. In an article by Elaine R. Ognibene, published in College Literature, “One man who does not change is Nathan Price. In The Poisonwood Bible, Nathan’s evangelical, self-righteous, judgmental attitudes threaten the lives of his family, as well as the people in the remote Congolese village of Kilanga.” (21)

The mother’s narratives explain her dedication to her husband first and then to her daughters. “And you wonder why I didn’t rise up and revolt against Nathan? I felt lucky to get my shoes on the right fee, that why. I moved forward only, thinking each morning anew that we were leaving the worst behind.” (200)

The mother near the end of the book leaves her husband after the death of her youngest daughter, Ruth May. The mother returns to Georgia with one of her daughters, Adah, and leaves her other two daughters who are too ill to travel.

The four daughters give their narratives in turn while they are growing up in Africa. After the death of the youngest daughter, Ruth May, two of the daughters remain in Africa, Rahel and Leah. As Rachel, the oldest daughter stated why she didn’t return to the United States, “My long tramp through the mud left me tuckered out and just too worldly-wise to go along with the teen scene.” (513) Leah married a man, Anatole, and raised a family with him. The third daughter, Adah, attends medical school at Emory University.

Even though each daughter and their mother give their own viewpoint of their lives in Africa, all their viewpoints about Africa remain the same. They all are affected by Africa and the daughters cannot live in the United States after becoming aware of their world and the effects of capitalism and socialism. These different viewpoints gave me a clearer understanding of what it have must have been like to live in Africa as a missionary.


Works Cited

Kingsolver, Barbara. “The Poisonwood Bible”
HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
New York, New York, 2002

The Missionary Position: Barbara Kingsolver's "The Poisonwood Bible" Elaine R. Ognibene
College Literature, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Summer, 2003), pp. 19-36
Published by: College Literature