The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver In 1960, Nathan Price took his wife and his four daughters to be a light unto the savages in the Congo. The savages in the Congo do not prove to be the fertile souls waiting for salvation that Reverend Price had hoped for. The people of Kilanga scorn the minister who would give their children to the crocodiles in the name of baptism. The daughters tell us their stories; Rachel who is 15 when they arrive in the Congo, a blonde beauty whose malapropisms are very often accurate, Leah who tries desperately to appease her always angry father, her twin Ada who has hemiplegia and refuses to speak as a matter of principle, but instead writes all of her communications, and Ruth May, a child with a friendly and simplistic view of everything.
The people of the Congo revolt against their Bulgarian oppressors, and the missionary society advises Nathan Price and his family to move out. But the Reverend Price says that he will keep the mission in Kilonga going until his successors arrive, and no matter if the only planned successors have changed their minds on account of the war. The missionary society leaves the Price family to its own devices. They remain in the Congo, some for years and some for their lifetimes. This story is mostly narrated by the three daughters who live. Their mother also introduces and concludes each section of this book.
This book addresses the attitude of whites, Americans, and Christians towards those who are none of the above, in a critical manner. The atheistic views contrasted here with Christianity disturb me because they fail to consider other religous views- all of the rational views adopted here are atheistic.
Deep reading.
: 5:51 AM
