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In Barbara Kingsolver's novel the Poisonwood Bible, a recurring theme that is prevalent throughout the book is the difference between the consumer west and the traditional Congo. The Price family has to adapt to the traditional roles and cultures of the Congolese village and the natives have to adapt to the suppression that the American families bring with them. The difference between the two cultures became obvious when Leah fights for a more masculine role in the hunt while the traditional religious leader and the chief fight to preserve culture and tradition. The clash between the two cultures is also evident through the parrot which signifies how the women in the Price family are suppressed by Nathan and the people of the Congolese village feel trapped by the westerners just like the parrot is confined within his cage. The motif of language also gives into the clash between the two cultures and the difference in the native Congolese language and english creates a barrier for communication when understanding various things.

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In the Poisonwood Bible, a main theme is how the hardships in life affect if one adapts, stays the same or becomes one with their surroundings. Each of the Price women represents these changes. Rachel is the Price woman who exemplifies staying stagnant. From beginning to end Rachel stays the same. She continues to be vain and  uses her beauty to manipulate others. The motif of Rachel's hair shows as her unwavering change.
Throughout the novel Rachel covets and plays with her hair as if it is her main concern and a status symbol. Due to her hair's color she is outcasted by the people of the Congo. To Rachel this is a good thing, from people viewing her differently she took it as how she was above them. And this attitude shows up later on when she is a racist old woman. Who still plays with her hair and is more concerned with her status and beauty. And continues to see the people of Africa as beneath her.

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In Barbara Kingsolver's novel the Poisonwood Bible, a recurring theme that is prevalent throughout the book is the difference between the consumer west and the traditional Congo. The Price family has to adapt to the traditional roles and cultures of the Congolese village and the natives have to adapt to the suppression that the American families bring with them. The difference between the two cultures became obvious when Leah fights for a more masculine role in the hunt while the traditional religious leader and the chief fight to preserve culture and tradition. The clash between the two cultures is also evident through the parrot which signifies how the women in the Price family are suppressed by Nathan and the people of the Congolese village feel trapped by the westerners just like the parrot is confined within his cage. The motif of language also gives into the clash between the two cultures and the difference in the native Congolese language and english creates a barrier for communication when understanding various things.

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The Poisonwood Bible is the story of the Price family's missionary adventure in the Congo, written by Barbara Kingsolver. Through their time in the Congo, their relationship with the Congolese exemplifies Western cultures inability to understand and cooperate with any culture other than their own. Nathan Price's demonstration garden symbolizes the Westerners stubbornness and arrogance, to the extent that Nathan reverts his garden back to his way of planting after Mama Tataba took the time to build the "burial mounds" to keep the seeds planted, the African way.

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The Poisonwood Bible tells the story of the Price family and their experiences working as missionaries in the Congo. The story is told from the perspective of 5 women, all of whom tell their individual stories as well as commenting on the actions of those around them, especially those of Nathan. The burden of guilt can either strengthen or destroy an individual, as seen through Orleanna, as the burden of failing her children and leaving them victim to Nathan’s conquest of Africa ultimately ruins her person and leaves her an empty shell trying to find forgiveness in the world around her. The motif of silence supports this theme and Orleanna’s role, as her only method of coping, silence, lays the path for Nathan’s destruction, which consequently leads to the death of Ruth May, and the ruin of “Ada”, Leah, and even Rachel. Malaria can be used as a symbol to further qualify silence as it causes one of the most significant bouts of silence within the family, and also leads to further inaction, that of which feeds into the all-consuming guilt of Orleanna.

Throughout the extent of their stay in the Congo, Orleanna rarely speaks up for her children or herself. She welcomes punishments and harsh remarks because after decades of being treated as an inferior, she cannot find it within herself to stand up to Nathan and stop the cycle of abuse. When Nathan refuses the to leave the Congo and chooses Kilanga over the safety of his children, rather than stand up to him, like Rachel, Olreanna welcomes illness and lays in bed for weeks with Ruth May, doing and saying nothing.  Her extended bout of silence is extremely significant because it destroys the moral of the girls and quickly leads the girls to find solace within themselves rather than depending on their parents, qualities that impact the duration of their lives.  Orleans’s refusal to take action for weeks closes the door to an opportunity to leave. Once she decides to actually get her family out of the Congo, it is too late—the rest of the missionary group, and they’re stuck with the conniving Axelroot.  The fact that Orleanna remained silent for so long revealed her weakness and inability to mother her children.  Her mistakes within the Congo, especially her lack of action when the opportunity was available to leave, led to the death of her child and permanently changed two of her other children. This motif relates to the burden of guilt strengthening, or in this case destroying a person, as Ruth’s death is directly related to Orleans’s silence and could have easily been prevented.  The guilt of Ruth May’s death on Olreanna’s hand destroys Olreanna as a person. In her later years, Orleanna roams the streets of Sanders Island, claiming to look for forgiveness in the ground and the sea and the sky and her flowers. She asks God and Ruth to show her forgiveness for her mistakes and it makes her senile, proving the burden of her guilt taking the opportunity to destroy her.

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In the novel, The Poisonwood Bible, Nathan Price demonstrates the theme of not being able to adapt leading to avoidable strife. Throughout the text, there are various instances where Nathan isn’t willing to change to his new environment as seen through the garden he tried planting along with the language barrier shared between him and the African villagers.

Throughout the duration of the novel, Nathan Price exemplifies how resistance to adaptation results in unnecessary problems as evidenced by the garden. Nathan Price plants a garden with the seeds he had brought from his home. The environment of the Congo which he planned to start his garden wasn’t suitable for the plants, leading to their eventually death, and requiring Nathan to rebuild it a second time. The garden in itself is a symbol of the ignorance Nathan Price shows in his new setting and how he believes that he can change the people and landscape in this new foreign environment instantly. A key motif described in the text is that of the language barrier between the villagers and Price family. They lack the means to effectively communicate their points of view. This is shown when Nathan Price tries preaching about Jesus Christ and the translation gets lost between him and the Congolese, ultimately leading to Nathan saying that Jesus is a poisonwood tree.

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As Nathan presses on in his mission in regards to spreading the word and way of God in the congo, we learn from the perspective from 5 women (his daughters and wife), the natives, and self assurance that religious conformity isn't always justifiable. Nathan, the motif vision, and his failed attempt of a garden support and illuminate the thematic statement that is religious conformity does not always become justifiable, but at times can be viewed as cultural domination and arrogance.
Nathan's vision is projected extensively throughout the novel where time and time again it is described as missionary work yet is depicted by his family as cultural domination. Nothing is capable of breaking Nathan's tunnel vision where he believes cultural dominance is justifiable, where the failure of his garden, the departure of his family, and even the death of his daughter Ruth May fail to deranged his vision of the impact he thinks he is making on the village. Ironically, Christianity is supposed to let your life fly high with happiness and prosperity, yet Nathan's mind is grounded and his life is literally and metaphorically running away from him as a result of his tunnel vision.

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In Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, an idea that is prevalent throughout the novel is the concept that people never change. In the course of events that take place in the novel, we see Nathan Price and his family take a missionary trip to the Congo, with the intent to bring the word of God to Africa, and potentially change the people, and even the country, forever. However, this dream does not pan out. One might think that in pursuing a missionary trip, the bringers of change might also learn something from the new experiences that they gain, but ironically, some members of the Price family, specifically Nathan and Rachel Price, remain relatively static in character, while also failing to accomplish the one thing that they set out to do from the very beginning- bringing change to the people of the Congo.

Rachel’s mirror, which happened to be one of the few possession’s that the Price family was able to bring with them to the Congo after facing some issues with airline weight limits, represents the very concept of lack of change. A mirror is typically used as a tool by people to check one’s appearance, and possibly fix any flaws that one might see in their reflection. However, in Nathan and Rachel’s case, they ironically failed to use their mirror (their time spent in the Congo) to be able to change and possibly even better themselves. Rachel remained the same self-centered person that she was when she first arrived at the village, always obsessing and prioritizing herself over others. Nathan, likewise, remained stubborn in his ways, refusing to change and learn from the people around him, which eventually led to his own downfall. In the same process, the people that the Price family tried to change, the village of Kilanga, also remained the same- they stuck to the traditions and customs that had allowed them to survive for thousands of years before.

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In The Posionwood Bible, Rachel Price is an egotistical teenager who chooses to care more about herself than the well being of her own family and the Congo society. Rather than accepting her family’s new environment and getting to know the culture of the native people, Rachel chooses to sulk and complain. Rachel’s behavior towards the natives and her own family reveals she is judgmental towards others based on their appearance and actions. She chooses to spend her time looking at herself in her mirror and ignoring the reality of living in a society where looks and appearances are the least of their worries. A symbol which could be connected to Rachel would be her mirror. The mirror represents not only Rachel’s self centered and egotistical nature, but also connects to the theme of cultural imperialism coming from the West. A motif that is apparent in the novel is arrogance, which can be seen in Rachel as well as her father who both believe their beliefs and values are more important than that of the Congolese people. Rachel represents the entitled presence of the Western colonial’s who look down upon the African natives and believe their existence matters more than the native population. Blinded by their own judgements just as Rachel is blinded by the importance of her appearance, both the colonials and Rachel fall victim to coming off as arrogant presences who lack the ability to see and interpret the full perspective of the native people.

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As human beings we tend to want those around us to conform to our societal norms. Within Barbara Kingsolver's the Poisonwood Bible, it is shown that inconclusiveness can only spark bad relationships, which will only lead to a negative, unforeseen future. This is magnified by Adah Price's use of palindromes, Nathan's character, and the reoccurring idea of language.
Nathan Price inhibits inconclusiveness which makes it impossible for his missionary to actually succeed in the Congo. For example, when Nathan Price says '"Tata Ndu feels that bringing the Christian word to these people is leading them to corrupt ways."' This once again shows Nathan's unwillingness to view the world around him from different perspectives. Not everyone views Christianity as the new way of life as he does. Nathan seems to expect them to convert to a new religion without even understanding or ever questioning it while abandoning their true religion.

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In the Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver discusses the experience of the Price family when they move to the Congo as missionaries. Kingsolver explores the idea that western missionaries, like the Price family, often underestimate the cultural complexity of other civilizations, especially the Congolese people. This is shown through the demonstration garden and the Price family's inability to see.
The demonstration garden functions as a symbol in this novel. Nathan Price plants this garden in the way that he was raised to do so. When Mama Tataba moved to fix it by rearranging the soil into a style that was more fit to survive the Congo rain, Nathan quickly moved to fix it, thinking his way would be a more sufficient way than what the Congolese had learned. This shows that Nathan Price was reluctant to adjust to the Congolese and their ways. His stubbornness was even commented upon by his daughter Adah who said, "No one can say he does not learn his lesson, though it might take a deluge... He was out there pushing his garden ... exactly the length and width of burial mounds." (Kingsolver, 78).

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In the Poisonwood Bible, Patrice Lumumba is represented as a promoter of Congolese independence from Belgium and symbolized both the end of the colonial movement and the struggle felt by an Africa grasping at independence. This contributes to the feeling of a lack of control throughout the book as horrible things occur without the Price girls being able to stop anything. These all lead to theme within the Poisonwood Bible of independence being a hard and painful endeavor, whether that independence be religious, social, or political, that is ultimately worth it in the end.
The theme of struggle for independence is expressed through Orleanna and her daughters’ constant fear of Nathan and their inability to ever overcome his oppression, which is happening parallel to the Congolese movement towards Independence led by Patrice Lumumba. He is a symbol, not just for the Congo’s struggle to be free of their European colonization past, but of Africa as a whole. He took a no violence approach and only wanted to create a Congo finally free from the West, but instead got in the middle of a power struggle between two powers and got killed in the crossfire. “Imagine if he could hear these words-dangerous to the safety of the world!-from a roomful of white men who held in their manufacture hands the disposition of armies and atomic bombs, the power to extinguish every life on earth.” Orleanna feels she can relate to Lumumba because similarly she pays in blood for independence from her oppression, though she never is truly able to recover, just like the Congo’ continual struggle to shake off years of slavery and colonial rule, and emerge as a free state.

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Choose one theme, one character, one symbol, and one motif.  Write an introductory paragraph to a paper in which you will discuss how these literary elements support and illuminate the theme.  Then, write one body paragraph about one of the elements.  Use text evidence with proper internal documentation