In Barbara KingsolverÆs The Poisonwood Bible two plots inform the novel which tells the story of three decades in the life of an American family transplanted to Africa by the father. The first, and central plot, centers on the Price family from its beginnings in Georgia to its missionary journey to Africa where tyrannical, self-righteous Nathan Price plans to spread the word of the Christian God and save the souls of the ôuncivilized natives.ö The consequences and aftermath of NathanÆs misguided undertaking is also dealt with. The secondary plot, which is interlaced with the first, deals with the violent political struggles of the Belgian Congo in the 1960s. Although the emotional locus is NathanÆs wife Orleanna and his four daughters, the conflicts in the Congo are as engrossing as the conflicts of the Price family.
The structure of the novel depends on multiple narrators, the four children and mother, who tell the story in alternating chapters. Each narrator has a distinct personality, and the perspectives of their situation differ accordingly. Orleanna is a conventional, resigned, obedient wife on the surface; ultimately, however, she takes charge and undergoes the greatest change of all the characters. The eldest daughter is the self-absorbed Rachel. The twins, Leah and Adah are completely different from each other, the first adoring her father, and Adah, who was born with a crippling birth defect, disdaining her father. Five-year old Ruth May is by turns sweet and defiant, and her death is the catalyst for change in Orleanna.
The naivety of the Price family is shown at the beginning of the novel when they are packing for their trip to Kalanga in 1959. Leah says, ôWe came from Bethlehem, Georgia bearing Betty Crocker mixes into the jungle. My sisters and I were all counting on having one birthday apiece during our twelve-month missionö (Kingsolver 11). By the end of their stay in Kalanga, when they must flee f...