“And, after all, our surroundings influence our lives and characters as much as fate, destiny or any supernatural agency.” Pauline Hopkins stated this in Contending Forces. This statement has many different meanings and can relate to the characters of The Poisonwood Bible.
Starting life until fifteen, Leah Price was a white American that always had food on her plate to eat, however once her father takes an opportunity to uproot the family and go do missions work in the Congo, Leah’s morals and psychological levels are tested time and time again. Leah Price changes in the story both psychologically and morally with the cultural, physical, or geographical surroundings that she has to live through while in the Congo.
In the beginning of the story…show more content… She now lives more in Africa than her native country of the United States. Leah goes back to the States a few times and even leaves her sons there to get an education at one point, but her and her husband always go home at sometime or another. The Congo changed her mental state. Leah was a girl that would do anything for her dad, even without his asking, but as time went on and he became more insane and the Congo started eating their family and tearing them apart, she became more worried about survival and safety rather than her father and hope chest.
Leah’s new home geographically and new culture end up contributing to the new physical state she is in. Leah grows up as an average white American, with enough food on her
3-Fant
plate every day. As mentioned before, when the Price family gets to the Congo, they do not suffer from hunger like the natives until they have no income and have to live like the natives.
This starts to mess with Leah’s physical state which in turn messes with her mental one. After the family eats up what little food is left and has to start finding new sources of food, a drought comes. The village ends up deciding on doing a hunt and this hunt shows the first change
