*The Poisonwood Bible--Week Five.

“Africa has a thousand ways to get under your skin” is a quote that portrays much of Exodus. As the girls and Orleanna separate and begin to live each one’s own life, the reader can see the transformation of Leah and Adah and the personality that remains with Rachel.

Leah has evolved the most out of the three girls within the story, as she continues to use Congolese techniques in everyday life. Now that Leah has married Anatole, an African man, Leah has decided to stay behind from her family and live in Africa with Anatole. Leah’s learned tricks from African women, such as balancing items on top of her head rather than carrying items in her hands. The entire time Leah had been in the Congo, she had been “awestruck by what the ladies could carry on their heads, but had never once tried it [herself].” Not only that, but Leah also learned when the “river was receding from its rainy season flood by its peculiar rank smell and all the driftwood…” Leah thinks back on when her mother told the girls that if a boat ever begins to turn over, “grab onto the side and hold on for dear life” but Leah learned Congolese boats are “made out of dense wood so if they capsize they sink like a rock.” Leah has been the most prevalent character at showing positivity from the Congo, and put to good use the culture of Congo.

Now that Nathan is out of Leah’s life, Leah is finally able to love who she wants- an African boy, Anatole. Leah learns “love changes everything” or, “requited love” does, for Leah has “loved [her] father fiercely [her] whole life, and it changed nothing.” However, when Leah is with Anatole, he makes “the colors of the aurora borealis rise off [her] skin” and sends “needles of ice tinkling blue through [her] brain when he looks in [her] eyes.” For Leah, Anatole has “banished the honey-colored ache of malaria and guilt from [her] blood” and because Leah’s father is no longer a part of her life, Leah is able to have feelings for someone without the fear of sinning. Not only does the imagery depict Leah’s strong feelings toward Anatole, but describes how “by way of Anatole, [Leah] is delivered not out of life, but through it.”

Even though Leah has begun accepting the African culture, and almost believes in their ways more than her father’s, Leah is still treated differently because she is white. Now as Leah lives in Africa, she is discovering what it is like to be treated differently, as Leah “damn’s [President Eisenhower, King Leopold, and Nathan] for throwing [her] into a war in which white skin comes down on the wrong side.”

The names within Leah’s life pose symbolism towards the story. Starting with Leah’s own name, Anatole explains how “Lingala” is sweet and maternal”, which is Leah’s African name. However, Leah’s English name is sarcastic, depicting how Leah used to act towards the Africans when her life was based on English beliefs. The difference between the African name and the English name symbolizes how Kingsolver is depicting the personalities of each country. By having Leah’s African name mean “sweet and maternal” and Leah’s English name mean “sarcastic”, Kingsolver exemplifies how Africans are caring for each person within the country and always looking out for one another; whereas in America, the population is overly sarcastic and arrogant.

Not only does Leah’s name show symbolism, but also Leah’s children’s names. Leah’s first two sons were named after Patrice and Pascal, Patrice being a leader of the Congo who was killed, and Pascal being an old childhood friend from the Congo. By naming the children after people in the Congo, Leah shows how Africans did have an impact on her, and that Leah respected their beliefs and friendship. Martin Lothair was Leah’s third child’s name, which sounds like Martin Luther, who was known for altering Christianity by saying that “salvation is not earned by good deeds but received only as a free gift of God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ” (Wikipedia.com)

Later on, when the reader finds out that Leah becomes an English teacher to American children, Leah realizes how ungrateful the children are as each begins complaining missing “their dire-sounding TV shows, things with Vice and Cop and Jeopardy in their titles.” Leah explains what the children are ignorant to is that “they’d been utterly surrounded by vice, cops, and the pure snake-infested jeopardy of a jungle.” The cleverness of relating the Television shows to actual occurrences in the Congo exemplifies how mature and knowledgeable Leah has become. When the children mock Leah’s dress style and call her “Mrs. Gumbo”, Leah “pitied them, despised them, and silently willed them back home.” What Leah doesn’t realize, is that is how the Price family treated the Congolese when they first moved to Africa.

As the girls separate from each other, the reader can identify personality that each girl portrays from Orleanna. Leah and Anatole’s relationship has certain characteristics that relate to Orleanna and Nathan’s relationship. Anatole “worked with the Lumbumbists” and was only expected to be gone for “no more than six or eight weeks.” However, Anatole was gone much longer, and Leah sat home and waited for a letter from Anatole. Anatole being away from Leah compares to when Nathan went into the war, and Orleanna waited and waited for his letter. Will Anatole change as much from the war as Nathan did, and will Leah be in the same position that Orleanna was in?

Much like Orleanna with Nathan, Leah begins to experience loneliness when Anatole is gone. As Leah reminisces back on memories of Anatole while he is gone, Leah tries to “decide which [chicken] to kill for supper” but in the end, Leah “can never take any of them, on account of the companionship [she] would lose.” Because of Orleanna’s loneliness, guilt, and regret, she explains that’s why she writes in this book. Just like Orleanna, Leah begins writing to Adah and Anatole. Even though “neither of them will ever see [her] letters”, Leah writes because she “needs the pouring out” of words and feelings, and the companionship of someone else, even if it’s fictitious.

While Leah’s life is beginning to appear like Orleanna’s, Rachel’s life has aspects of Nathan in it as Rachel’s personality remains greedy. Nathan came to the Congo, not for the benefit of the people and to help the community become better, but was rather for his own personal gain to appear as a savior over the people. Rachel’s matrimony with men isn’t for love, but rather for her personal gain. Rachel poses a false engagement with Eeben Axelroot so that she can depart from Congo. Then Rachel tries to have a relationship with Daniel, a married man, basically just to see if she can steal Daniel away from his wife and so Rachel can become rich and have items such as a “dior gown.” Finally, Rachel marries “Diplomat Remy Fairley” who at least had the “decency to die and leave [her] the Equatorial.” Rachel wanted a building just like “Shah’s temple” referring to Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, after she died. Rachel did not marry these men for love, but rather for the material items that they provided to her. Each chapter title pertaining to Rachel has different last names, showing how many times Rachel has been married, ultimately showing how Rachel flutters from one guy to the next, waiting more material goods. Rachel tricked each one of the men as they “never knew what hit [them].”

Rachel is the one sister that fails to conform to the African culture. Rachel concerns herself with affluence and fashion trends. Rather than being concerned about her family, Rachel frets about how because the Ladies’ Home Journal arrives so late, that the women “are one or two months out of style” as they “probably started painting [their] nails Immoral Coral after everybody sensible had already gone on to pink.”

Rachel notices, while riding the train out to the beach, that “you have to look the other way” because the people’s homes are made “out of a piece of rusted tin or the side of a crate.” Rachel explains how “you just have to try and understand they don’t have the same ethics as us. That is one part of living here. Being understanding of the differences.” This line depicts irony, for Rachel is the sister who is not understanding of differences.

Rachel’s goal in her new life to forget about what happened in the Congo, and simply block those details out of her life. Very rarely, Rachel takes out a “gold locket” that she wore in the Congo. Inside of the locket was a picture of “teeny little sad faces” of Rachel and her sisters. The picture is “so small, [Rachel] has to hold it practically at the end of [her] nose to make out who it is” symbolizing Rachel’s feelings toward her family during and after life in the Congo- small, minute, and almost nonexistent.

Not only does Rachel forget about her family, but has no recollection of the people in Congo. While hanging out with Adah and Leah, Leah tells about how Pascal has died, and Rachel first thought Leah was talking about her son, and then finally remembered Pascal as “the little boy with the holes in his pants.” Rachel had no memory of anyone in the Congo, showing how the people had no affect on her, ultimately symbolizing the obsessive and high standard personality Rachel has for herself.

Not only do the girls change emotionally, but Adah changes physically and she gets help from a doctor and is no longer crippled. Now that Nathan is out of Adah’s life, she is able to go to college and become a doctor. While everyone believed that Adah was the sister destined to fail, ironically Adah is the one making the most out of her life and is the happiest out of all the sisters. Leah and Rachel exhibit traits that makes the reader question if they may end up like Orleanna and Nathan in the end, whereas Adah is living her own life, and going on to school to become a doctor and finally doing something for herself.

After Orleanna leaves Nathan, herself and Adah move into a new home, Orleanna begins gardening, something she never did when Nathan was around. During the girls’ childhood, they “never had one flower in [their] yard” and now Orleanna’s entire yard is “surrounded by a blaze of pinks, blues, and oranges.” The flowers in the garden symbolize many things, one being beauty. The flowers symbolize beauty in Orleanna’s life that wasn’t there when Nathan was around. The garden also symbolizes the nurturing of life. The garden wouldn’t grow when Nathan was around, symbolizing how the girls and Orleanna weren’t able to grow and flourish when Nathan was around, because he was holding the women back from living their own lives. Now that Nathan is gone, the garden is blossoming, just like the girls are developing and choosing their own paths in life.

Now that Nathan has died, the title of the entire book begins to make sense. Nathan mistakenly calls Jesus “Poisonwood” by saying “Bängala” the wrong way. Poisonwood is a type of tree in the Congo that if the sap gets on a person, he or she will break out into contagious blisters that can eventually turn into 1^st or 2^nd degree burns if not treated. Metaphorically, the poisonwood in the story is the preaching of Jesus. Nathan didn’t give up preaching to the people about Jesus when they didn’t want to hear it, and ultimately Nathan ended up “getting burned.”

*The Poisonwood Bible--Week Four.

As The Poisonwood Bible progresses, the girls continue to grow and transform. Rachel has gone from snobbery materialism, and morphed into a girl who smokes. As Rachel continues to pretend to be engaged to Axelroot, Rachel has now undergone a change and begins to smoke, which is a sin and would be shunned if Nathan ever found out. While smoking, Axelroot takes the cigarette out of Rachel’s mouth and sticks both cigarettes in his own, “lights them together,” and then “ever so gently, puts the lit cigarette back” into Rachel’s mouth. “It seemed almost like [they] had kissed, and chills ran down [her] back.” The lighting of the two cigarettes at once and the anxiety Rachel felt over exchanging cigarettes from Axelroot’s mouth into her own foreshadows the kiss that the two exchange later on. The anxiety that Rachel feels not only contributes to Rachel’s naivety and adolescence, but also shows how drastically Rachel is growing into a women.

Not only do the cigarettes foreshadow the kiss, but imagery also contributes to it. Right before, the two were in the “cool forest” where it was “very quiet.” The only noise was “bird sounds with silence in between, and those sounds put together seemed even quieter than no sound at all.” The quietness contributes to the fact that the two were completely alone in the forest, showing how the kiss was something that Axelroot wanted to do, and wasn’t just for show to make the town see that the two were genuine about being engaged. The forest was “shadowy and dark, even though it was the middle of the day.” The darkness portrays the sin that Rachel committed by not only kissing Axelroot, but enjoying it.

Just when the reader thinks that Rachel may be adapting to the Congolese culture, clues surface that make the reader wonder if Rachel ever truly will adapt. After the fire circle that the village has, the people are entirely covered in ash. Rather than going with the village into the town square to celebrate the food they’d acquired, Rachel instead went home and “tore off [her] filthy clothes and threw them into the stove.” As Rachel sat in the “galvanized tub” and took a bath, she stared up at “mother’s picture of President Eisenhower” and wished that “he was [her] father instead of [her] own parents” because if Eisenhower was Rachel’s father, she would “live under the safe protection of somebody who wore decent clothes, bought meat from the grocery store like the Good Lord intended, and cared about others” which is a bit ironic, considering Rachel doesn’t always go out of her own way to care for others. Rachel also thought that after her family left Congo, she would go back to Georgia “and be exactly the same Rachel as before” and she would “grow up to be a carefree American wife, with nice things and a sensible way of life and three grown sisters to share [her] ideals and talk to on the phone from time and time.” Rachel and the rest of the family did not have any idea that the Congo would change them so drastically, and were by no means prepared for what the family went through. The family’s inability to cope with the Congolese culture ultimately symbolizes how America is not able to not only adapt to other cultures, but does not try or want to adapt to other cultures.

Even though Rachel wasn’t able to adapt, Leah is learning and growing as the story progresses. When the ants take over the village, rather than worrying about saving Adah, Leah is more concerned about Mama Mwanza. Although Leah had forgotten, once again, about Adah, Leah has learned to care about the Congolese people, and now thinks of them as Leah’s own family.

The ants that took over the village each took over a different area of the girl’s bodies. The ants were most abundant on Rachel “in [her] hair.” On Adah, the ants covered her “earlobes, tongue, and eyelids” and on Leah the ants were most abundant on her feet. Each area where the ants were at on the girls body symbolize the personality of each of the girls. The importance of the ants covering Rachel’s hair symbolize what Rachel concentrates most on in the Congo—her appearance and vanity. The ants covering Adah’s earlobes and eyelids symbolize that Adah hears and sees events in the Congo that no other person in the family does. However, the ants covering Adah’s mouth symbolizes how Adah refuses to speak. Finally, the ants on Leah’s feet symbolize how Leah has learned to “stand” her ground, with not only the people in the Congo, but most importantly Leah’s father.

When Ruth May dies, all Nathan was concerned about was that Ruth “hadn’t been baptized” yet, rather than the fact that Ruth had just died. As the story proceeds, Leah begins seeing the Congolese as “beautiful” and “pretty” and begins seeing her own father as “a simple, ugly man.” The selfishness that Nathan has with wanting to baptize and rectify the Congolese people, causes Nathan to overlook his own daughter’s death, and becomes concerned solely with the fact that Ruth May had not yet been baptized.

After Ruth May’s death, rather than going to heaven as her father wished, Ruth goes where she wishes to be, in the tree with the green mamba snakes. Before Ruth dies, she ponders the thought of where she would want to go after death. As Ruth thinks about green mamba snakes and how “it’s so quiet up there” in a tree, Ruth knows “that’s exactly what [she] wants to go and be, when [she] has to disappear.” Being up in the tree, Ruth “can look down and see the whole world, Mama and everybody.” Because Ruth was bitten by a green mamba and died, that also symbolizes where Ruth May went after death. The scream that the girls and Nelson heard when Ruth died, sounded almost as if “the sound came from the tree.” While Ruth May’s body lie on the table during the funeral, covered in “misty layers of mosquito netting”, Ruth’s body resembled a “billowy cloud that could rise right up through the trees” again symbolizing where Ruth went after death.

For a long period of time, the Congo suffered a severe drought. The children’s “favorite swimming hole” was “nothing but dry cradles of white stones.” The manioc fields were “flat: dead.” People of the village so desperately begged for rain, that “nearly every girl in the village had danced with a chicken held to their head, to bring down the rain.” The drought and dry spell that Congo experiences foreshadows the death of Ruth May. However, after Ruth’s death, “the sky groaned and cracked” and “shrill, cold needles of rain pierced” at the Congolese’s “hands and backs of [their] necks.” The rain that appeared on the day of Ruth’s funeral, poses hope for not only the Congolese now that they have rain, but also the Price family—hope that maybe after the death of one of Nathan and Orleanna’s children, and that Nathan was able to baptize the children with the rain water, that the family will be able to leave the Congo and return home.

Within the entire length of the story thus far, Orleanna lent hints of a child dying, and the guilt Orleanna felt for it. The reader finally understands the guilt and the reason for Orleanna’s pleads that the reader find her “innocent.” The entire stay at the Congo, Orleanna senses that one of her children is going to die, but refuses to take action. Orleanna finally is able to work and motivate after the death of Ruth. Not only does this demonstrate how one should always follow one’s conscience, but also illustrates how even though one may know someone or something is in danger, he or she will wait to take action until the damage is already done.

Kingsolver continues to point out America’s faults and attitudes towards other countries, as Kingsolver depicts hypocriticalness and snobbery. While Nathan is preaching, the people of the Congo agree to take a vote as to whether they believe in Jesus or not. Even though Americans were the ones that introduced voting to the Congolese, Nathan refuses to accept this method just because the vote doesn’t go his way. The refusal of voting exemplifies how Americans want everything to go the way we want, or else it’s not acceptable.

The Congolese people create a fire ring to entrap animals for themselves to eat. The fire “ungrew” smaller and smaller, “with all the former life of a broad grassy plain trapped inside. The trapped animals inside of the fire ring symbolize all the people of the Congo, whereas the fire itself represents the Americans. Americans push and force new customs upon different countries, until it ultimately “kills” the Congolese culture. Kingsolver exemplifies, through the fire ring, how Americans believe that their ways are the best, and that other countries should learn to live like Americans do.

The importance of having the five women in the story narrate the entire book, shows how Nathan speaks for the girls in real life, so the five women never have any say in real life. However, as the story progresses, each of the girls are beginning to have more say for themselves and stand up to Nathan, which makes the reader wonder if ultimately Nathan will start narrating in the end of the story as the women begin to speak over him.

*The Poisonwood Bible--Week Three.

In the beginning of Book three, the reader is again taken back into the thoughts of Orleanna. This time, the reader gains insight on why Nathan Price acts the way he does towards the Price family. When Orleanna first married Nathan, the two spend a honeymoon “picking cotton for the war effort.” Neither Orleanna nor Nathan needed material items to make their honeymoon and marriage special, but enjoyed each other’s company by helping out for war efforts. However, soon after, Nathan was drafted into World War II. Nathan was at war a short three months when he was “struck in the head with a shell fragment” and suffered “a head concussion.” Nathan knew he was saved by the “grace of God” and was grateful, however, Orleanna knew that “was the last [she] would ever hear from the man [she’d] married.” The night Nathan was hit by a shell fragment and hid in a pig shed, little did Nathan know that his fellow soldiers endured an excruciating test of survival in the Bataan Death March. The Bataan Death March was a sixty mile march consisting of physical abuse and murder forced upon 75,000 Americans from the Japanese Army. The result was a high number of fatalities by many American soldiers. Every one of Nathan’s “company died, to the man, on the Death March from Bataan.” From then on, everything Orleanna knew about Nathan changed. If ever Orleanna tried to speak or kiss Nathan, he would pull away responding that “the Lord is watching us.” The reader now knows why Nathan is the way he is with the persistent control of forcing every person upon faith and belief in the Lord. Even though the war instilled profound religious beliefs upon the Lord, the war also forced abuse and hatred toward anyone that had doubts in the lord. Nathan pushed faith so strongly upon Orleanna, she began fearing the Lord, afraid that if she “let one of [her] father’s curse words slip” or if “He watched [her] take a bath, daring to enjoy the warm water” that she would be punished. Nathan watched Orleanna just as closely, causing Orleanna to live her life in fear of doing anything that could be perceived as sinful.

As the lives of Nathan and Orleanna Price began to alter, Orleanna became pregnant with her first baby, and so she thought, only one more the second time. Because Orleanna and Nathan did not have much money, Orleanna was deprived of food during her pregnancy. Orleanna had such desperate cravings for food, she would “go out at night on [her] hands a knees and secretly eat dirt from the garden.” After Orleanna had twins, she felt an overwhelming feeling of guilt for her poor nutrition and lack of food to support her babies. Adah is the way she is because of the lack of food that Orleanna could provide for her.

Orleanna speaks of the great life she lived when she was younger. Even though Orleanna’s mother died, Orleanna was still happy living with just her father in poverty, because Orleanna’s father didn’t force her to be something she is not. From then on after Orleanna married Nathan, all of the stories Orleanna recites are rife with guilt and depression.

As the chapter goes on and the point of view is now back upon the four girls, the reader learns of the metamorphosis that each girl is taking on with Leah undergoing the most dramatic change. As Leah arrives back from Leopoldville back to Congo, the arrival is nothing like the first time the family came. There was not a “single soul standing at the edge of the field to greet” them, no “drums or stewing up a goat for us.” Leah begins realizing how much the Congolese people gave the Price family, and each of the Price’s took the “feast” for granted. As Leah “feels a throb a dread” she “pledged to the Lord that [she] would express true gratitude for such a feast” if one would ever happen again. The guilt of failed appreciation is felt by all three girls when Orleanna and Ruth May become sick, and each girl has a duty to help around the house. Making a meal proves to be difficult for each girl, and each of them gain a new appreciation for the work of Orleanna.

At first when the girls arrived in Congo, all the girls noticed was the peculiar dress and abnormalities of the Congolese. Now that Leah begins looking again at Mama Mwanza, rather than noticing her missing legs, Leah now sees Mama Mwanza with an “extraordinarily pretty face.” Leah also cannot help but notice the extreme physical attraction she feels towards Anatole, as her feelings for him become stronger. Leah begins teaching schooling to younger Congolese children, and also learns to shoot a bow and arrow-- something Leah would have previously thought as boyish and a sin. Congolese people even begin calling Leah Bakala, which means either “a hot pepper, a bumpy sort of potato, or the male sex organ.” However, Leah does not care; Leah is pleased with spending her time with Anatole and getting away from her overbearing father.

Not only is Anatole a fresh relief from Nathan, but also Brother Fowles, the previous minister in Congo, who was asked to leave for “becoming too close to the Congolese.” Brother Fowles exemplifies everything that Nathan is not, which causes Orleanna and the four girls to wish to leave with Brother Fowles. Calling Brother Fowles Santa Claus is not only ironic because of his appearance, but also because of his personality. Brother Fowles brings the Price family many gifts, and is kind and understanding towards the family. Brother Fowles is a foil character to Nathan, as he is everything positive that Nathan is not.

Barbara Kingsolver continues to portray America as a greedy country, unwilling to help less fortunate countries, and ungrateful of the items we have. In Kilanga, people knew “nothing of things such as a Frigidaire, or a washer-dryer combination.” It also “didn’t occur to the people to feel sorry for themselves” for not having material items, for the only time the Congolese felt sorry for themselves was when “children died.” Kingsolver shows how in Congo, people are of more importance than material items and having wealth, whereas in America, being wealthy is at utmost importance. When Leah is speaking to Anatole about having numerous automobiles per home, and having a great big store for food, Anatole does not believe Leah. Even though the Congo is less fortunate in technological ways, Kingsolver makes the reader wonder if the Congo is better off, as the people are more appreciative for the things that they do have. As one continues to read, the reader is able to grow along with the Price family in cultural values.

*The Poisonwood Bible--Week Two.

“I took a breath and told myself that a woman anywhere on earth could understand another woman on market day. Yet in my eye could not decipher those vendors: they wrapped their heads in bright-colored cloths as cheerful as a party, but faced the world with permanent frowns. However I might pretend I was their neighbor, they knew better. I was pale and wide-eyed as a fish. A fish in the dust of the marketplace, trying to swim, while all the other women calmly breathed in that atmosphere of overripe fruit, dried sweat, and spices, infusing their lives with powers I fear.“ The beginning of Revelations begins with Orleanna reminiscing on memories from Africa. As Orleanna thinks back on market day, she remembers how peculiar she appeared throughout the woman of Africa. Not only did the “bright-colored clothes” differ between Orleanna and the Congolese women, but also the personalities and feelings. Just as Orleanna was feeling like the family may have a chance at fitting in, Leah trips “mid-straddle over the oranges” and the oranges go everywhere. After the incidence happens, Orleanna realizes how much the family does not fit in with the Africans, as Orleanna discovers that she is only “[her] husband’s wife” and “nothing more” as Nathan has a control on everything the Price family does.

As one reads the story, thoughts of what Orleanna’s life would be like if she hadn’t had married Nathan begins to arise not only for the reader, but soon for Orleanna herself. When Orleanna wakes up each morning in the Congo, she remembers how the mornings were the worst, as Orleanna had to face another day with her husband and children, and the “litany of efforts it took to push a husband and children alive and feed through each day.” Coffee was of far more importance than “the physical presence of [her] husband.” The river symbolized a way out for Orleanna. Each day she “dream[ed] of how it might have carried [her] body down through all the glittering sandbars to the sea” away from responsibility and, more distinctively, the family which bears a burden and a husband that Orleanna doesn’t wish to be with. The “magazine pictures” that Orleanna has hanging up in the kitchen also symbolize the dismay she feels towards the children and Nathan, as each picture poses a scene that “father would disapprove” of as the pictures gleam faces of “housewives, children, and handsome men from cigarette ads” which “are company for her” in the dreams Orleanna has of living a different life.

Each girl masquerades a different view on not only the Congolese, but religion itself. Mama Tataba refers to the girls as “fufu nsala” which means “forest-dwelling, red-headed rat that runs from light.” The comparison Mama Tataba instills upon the girls is ideally correct, as each girl secludes herself in the forest, unwilling to understand the Congolese culture and find the “light” to guide each girl to happiness in the Congo. “Adah chose her own exile; Rachel was dying for the normal life of slumber parties and record albums she was missing. And poor Leah. Leah followed [her father] like an underpaid waitress hoping for the tip.”

Rachel, the eldest of the girls, is stuck on material items and vanity. Watching women work in the community has no effect upon Rachel. Mama Tataba could accomplish many tasks in the Congo with ease, as she could “reach her fingers deep in a moldy bag, and draw out a miraculous ounce of white flour. She rendered goat fat into something like butter, and pulverized antelope mean into hamburgers. She used a flat rock and the force of her will to smash groundnuts into passable peanut butter.” All the while Mama Tataba was laboring over food for the Prices, Rachel sat “at the foot of the table” ungrateful as she “tossed her hair from shoulders, announcing that all she wished for in this world was ‘Jiffy, smooth. Not crunchy.’”

Later on when Rachel sees Antatole’s “wrinkled brown knuckles and pinkish palms” Rachel begins imagining “hands like those digging diamonds out of the Congo dirt” and wondering if “Marilyn Monroe even [knew] where they came from.” Rachel pictured Marilyn in “her satin gown and a Congolese diamond digger in the same universe” which gave her “the weebie jeebies.” Even though Rachel has lived in the Congo for quite some time, she still cannot fathom “normal” people and the Congolese people residing in the same area and also belonging together. Rachel is stuck on herself, and the spoiled girl she was back home. Will Rachel ever be able to step out of herself and come at peace with the Congo culture?

Leah is the opposite of Rachel, as Leah is concentrated more upon obtaining her father’s approval and love than anything else. Leah discovers that that Tata Boanda “has two wives”, therefore making him a “sinner.” Leah is taken aback at the fact that Tata Boanda comes into the church with his two wives, but what Leah oversees is the culture of the Congolese. Leah is concentrated on her own religion because it’s all she’s ever been taught by her father, that Leah fails to comprehend what the Congolese believe, and ultimately classifies them as sinners.

After Nathan hits Leah, Leah is afraid that she won’t be her father’s favorite anymore. So with all Leah does from then on, she tries “twice as hard to win him back over.” Is Leah as religious as she appears to be, or does she just pretend to live in the Lord’s ways to win over her father’s love?

Leah’s twin sister, Adah, is supposedly the sister that doesn’t comprehend anything. Ironically, Adah is book smart, and the only sister that attempts to understand the Congolese people. There are certain areas in the Congo river that is divided up into three different sections for bathing, washing clothes, and obtaining drinking water. Adah is the only one out of the Price family that realizes the Price family is doing it the wrong way, therefore they have “defended the oldest divinities” and Adah soon wonders “what new, disgusting sins [they] commit each day, holding [their] heads high in sacred ignorance while the neighbors gasp, hand to mouth.” Whereas the rest of the family focuses on themselves, Adah observes every bit of nature and culture surrounding her.

Ruth May, the youngest of all the girls, facades a naïve girl. Because of the inexperience that Ruth has and carefree spirit she portrays, Ruth is the first of the girls to befriend the other children. The other girls were “flabbergasted” to see their “own little sister in the center of [their] yard, the focal point of a gleaming black arc of children strung from here to there…” Ruth didn’t see a problem with the Congolese people, and in all her boredom and isolation from the rest of the community, decided that there would be nothing wrong with playing “Mother May I” and teaching the children a new game. Although Ruth is the youngest, she is able to be the most civilized one out of the family when it came to being kind to the Congolese and non judgmental.

Even though Nathan Price disrespects the Congolese beliefs and Tata Kuvudundu by calling him a “witch doctor” because he’s trying to get the Congolese to believe in different ideas than Nathan agrees with, one has to give the Price family credit for being stubborn in their religious ways even though many people in the African community were against the family’s religion.

While the family believes that the way the Congolese dress, act, and believe are strange, the family fails to see how peculiar they look to the Africans when the Price’s do simple tasks such as “walk around in [their] house, speak, wear pants, and boil water.” The game that Ruth taught the Congo kids was different than the games that the Congolese kids normally play. “Mother May I and Hide and Seek” were a “wide world of difference” than “Find Food, Recognize Poisonwood, and Build a House.” The girls’ games are all about fun, whereas the Congolese children’s games are about chores. Not only are games different, but religious beliefs differ. When the Price family disagrees with what someone in the community has to say, the family banishes them from the family’s house—once again secluding themselves into a house “without any outside distractions.” When the Price family discovers that someone may not be as religious as them, rather than accepting the beliefs of that person, they isolate themselves in a house as they wither away with the family’s own beliefs.

Towards the end of Revelations, the Price family discovers that the Congo is now going to be a free country, and the Price’s are supposed to pack up their belongings and leave. Even though Orleanna, Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth all wish to leave, Nathan refuses the family to go. Methuselah, the bird that the family attempted to set free but kept on coming back, dies at the end of the chapter when the family finds out about Congo becoming free. Methuselah symbolizes the people of Congo. When Nathan freed Methuselah from his cage, Methuselah kept on returning to the family for food, because the bird couldn’t survive on his own. Methuselah is found dead at the end of the chapter, and all that was found was “feathers without the ball of Hope inside” symbolizing how the Congolese people cannot survive on their own. Will the fate of the Congolese end up like Methuselah, or will the Price family step up and help the people of Congo?