“And, after all, our surroundings influence our lives and characters as much as fate, destiny or any supernatural agency,” is a quote from Pauline Hopkin’s Contending
Forces that applies very well to many of the different characters in Barbara Kingslover’s
The Poisionwood Bible. The entire Price family are all changed by the Congo but more than any other character it applies most so to Nathen Price. The missionary minister has visions of grander when planing to come to the Congo but he is soon met with the reality of how hard life would really be in the Congo. Judy Doenges explains it best when she says that, “the novel chronicles in part the inevitable failure of Nathan's evangelical mission in the tiny Congo village of Kilanga.” His new cultural, physical and…show more content… Especially after the death of his daughter, Price needed to results but he choked under the pressure. Eventually, Nathen’s sins found him out because he didn't take the effort to explain the ideas of the Christian religion to the people of the Congo. After the people witnessed the forced (or unexplained rather) baptism of the native people of the Congo, many of the leaders began to believe that he was drowning people. The Congolese people decided to kill Nathen Price. Some would say that he was Jesus to the people in the Congo but to others and in my opinion, he was more like the devil to them. He skewed the word of
God to try to fulfill his own agenda. Maybe a more fitting comparison then the devil, is
Judas. Nathen was a faithful follower of Jesus. Although he was over the top, his intentions in the beginning were very good. He wanted to help the people who had never heard about Jesus before but when things weren't easy and didn't go his way, he gave
