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. 

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.

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.