Poisonwood Bible

Orleanna Price, the wife and mother, of this struggling family is a very honest woman, lacking some of the stronger religious background of which her husband possesses. Orleanna, struggles with the hardships of daily life; toting and disinfecting the family's water, scrambling to make ends meet and trying to protect her family from the myriad terrors of the bush. Orleanna uses irony to describe the early days of her marriage. As she describes them, the days when there was still room for laughter in her husband's evangelical calling,

As for the youngest, 5-year old Ruth May, she brightly tries to make sense of the exotic new world in which she finds herself, even as she makes friends with the children of Kilanga. Through her games of “Mother May I?” she becomes accepted and loved by the Congolese people, and for this reason the other members of the family seem to be jealous of her; for in her childish ways she seems to be the only one accepted by the Congolese people. Ruth May, is the innocent whose words betray the guilty; she is the catalyst that splits the Price family apart. Her religion is found in her innocence, which protects her from the hardships around her. At five years of age, she doesn’t fully understand the bible, or the messages conveyed within it, but God is clearly present in her free-willed spirit that allows her purity to bless those around her. As she plays her childish games, it is as if the Congolese can feel her altruistic spirit therefore they choose to accompany her, when they wouldn’t give any other whites a chance to prove themselves. Ruth May is symbol of how God works in the lives of those who do not have the opportunity to reject him, for out of ignorance only they do not follow him.

before her pregnancies embarrassed him, before he returned from World War II a different man, a man who planned ''to save more souls than had perished on the road from Bataan.'' Her husband, Nathan Price, had escaped those miseries simply by luck, and knowing it curled his heart ''like a piece of hard shoe leather.'' As her husband continually preaches the good Lord’s word, she is faced with what seems to her to be the more important burdens of life, survival and keeping her family safe and sane. She doesn’t appear to have nearly so strong of a religious background as her husband would have hoped for her, however, throughout the novel it is made quite clear that she is in fact a better person than her husband could have ever hoped to be. Her daughter, Leah, captures her mothers religion very well when she says, “my father wears his faith like the bronze breastplate of God's foot soldiers, while our mother's is more like a good cloth coat with a secondhand fit.'' This quote is very true, as her father is the evangelical missionary leader who parades his religion around, as he craves for the reputation of being a “good person,” because he preaches the bible. Orleanna does nothing of the sort she worships the lord, because she believes in him, and his word, she does not praise him, simply to look good. As Mathew 6:1 states, “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven,” Nathan Price, is very hypocritical as he does his good deeds to be noticed, while Orleanna does them out of faith and moral righteousness.

quote not only applies to her views of t

Some topics in this essay:
Nathan Price, Congolese Anatole, Yes Jesus, Garden Eden, Orleanna Price, Congolese People, Congo Kingsolver, Bible Adah, War II, Bible Kingsolver, nathan price, congolese people, poisonwood bible, narrated women family, beliefs life, background husband, religious background, evangelical missionary, adah chose, belgian congo, life congo, religious background husband,