The Poisonwood Bible Essay

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The Poisonwood Bible, a bestselling novel by Barbara Kingsolver, is a unique narrative that revolves around the decision of Baptist Nathan Price, to move his family from their once familiar home town in Georgia, all the way to the poverty stricken Congo. In doing so, Nathan is able to spread the word of the Lord, but his decisions takes a toll on his family resulting in everlasting consequences. One of the main aspects that makes the novel unique is the Price family’s experiences are told through Nathans wife, Orleanna, and his four daughters; Leah Adah, Rachel and Ruth May. Though the narrators are all from the same family, each character has their own view on what the Congo has offered them from the time that they have spent there. Within …show more content…
The reason for creating a flashback instead of telling Orleanna’s life events chronologically, is because by doing so the reader is able to directly contrast Orleanna’s early life and present life. In the beginning of Orleanna’s flashback she first describes what her childhood was like considering she lost her mom and was born into The Great Depression. Surprisingly Orleanna’s description of her childhood takes on a positive tone showing her childhood was not seen as negative. Continuing on Orleanna speaks about the events that occurred when she was seventeen. First, Orleanna found the lord and soon after she met Nathan, who was a preacher at the time. Though Orleanna had already found the lord and resisted Nathan she still ended up in a courtship with him which lead to marriage. The diction in the text like “my unclaimed soul” and “I wouldn’t have known how to form one” portrays Orleanna’s naïveness that explains why she allowed Nathan to get so close. Then Orleanna goes on to recalls the main turning point of her flashback. This is when Nathan got hurt in combat and when he woke up he was a new man. Nathan had a new devotion towards god and through tone shows how overbearing it became. Orleanna explains in a series of sentences how she felt after Nathans new found identity,
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