The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, tells a story of how a cultural exchange defined by imperialism, power, and racial prejudice goes horribly wrong through the eyes of the five female main characters. The book follows the Prices, a white American family of missionaries, on their journey to the Congo in the early 1960s. Nathan Price is husband and father to five Price women and very fundamentally Christian and Western in his understanding of gender roles and his duty to bring Jesus to the Congolese. Orleanna, his wife, and their four daughters Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth Ann are reluctant, but agreeable to Nathan’s mission.
The Price family soon find themselves as unwelcome outsiders in the village of Kilanga, and Nathan’s hellbent commitment to his abrasive and condescending attempts at evangelization cause a seemingly never-ending litany of struggle, and danger, for the family. On the national level, Congo is fighting to fight off the influence of outsiders as well. The government is in a fight to regain power from imperialist Belgium who had colonized the country years ago, and the Congolese leadership working to take its place refuses the support of Western, capitalist influence in the country any further as it would never fully free them of colonial rule. This creates an environment where white outsiders are even more unwelcome, and the Price’s feel the effects of the unrest in the country.
The Poisonwood Bible offers a unique look into the power dynamics which are at play both in Kilanga and nationally in the Congo by allowing each of the women of the Price family to narrate their time in the village. Through them, we as readers come to understand the personal biases of each they’ve brought with them from the United States, but also the toxic influence Nathan has on them as well, and how they compromise this as they learn to understand the people and culture of Kilanga. We might not have otherwise got this perspective had an external narrator told their stories. Adah, Leah’s twin, is mostly mute during her childhood and her chapters offer the only true insight to her perspective and understanding of the events that happen in the village other than her family’s interpretation of her voice. The book ends with the stories of each Price woman following their climatic exit from Kilanga. Whether back home in Georgia, or around the world, each woman offers a reflection of what happened to their family and a new understanding of the very real consequences interfering and exerting power on another culture can have. This is what Kingsolver hopes we as readers can reflect upon as well, as we have over the course of this semester in this class.