Cultural Differences In The Poisonwood Bible
All cultures have their own ideals, religions, and social systems. The Prices are forced to learn this the hard way in The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. Through the perspectives of the wife and four daughters of the Price family, Kingsolver conveys her message within the novel. Leah Price, being one of the more intellectual of the children, provides many differences in the African and American cultures through her observations she makes within the novel. These observations allow her to be one of the first of the children to accept the differences in the cultures when they arrive in the Congo. One of the many themes that is told throughout the novel is greatly pronounced because of it: In order to gain perspective of one thing, another
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Because of many of them having disfigurements, the people have adjusted to using parts of their bodies as tools and still continuing to go about their lives and work like normal people like how she observes the “lame Mama Mwanza who scurries down the road on her hands.” (Kingsolver, 1998, p. 102). They soon are able to recognize their neighbors because “People wear the same thing day in and day out, and that how [they] recognize them.” (Kingsolver, 1998, p. 102). One major cultural difference that she notices is that in the Congolese children, in “their married eyes” (Kingsolver, 1998, p. 107), many of the children, some no older than Ruth May, are already pregnant and having families within Kilanga. She also notices just how generous the Congo people compared to those within the Americas. As mentioned before, the Congolese have learned early on that they must rely on each other and provide for one another to survive, compared to how in America, there is already so much that it is seen as ‘worry about yourself’ country. This is definitely shown when after the Congo gained independence that the only one that still helped them was Mama Mwanza. “She made her over on the palms of her feet to give us oranges, Independence or not.” (Kingsolver, 1998, p. 206). This display of not pity but generosity means so much to the Prices. Throughout the novel, Leah observes and accepts these differences within the cultures, mostly because she is aware that the people simply don’t know any better. The only thought in their mind is survival and they do what they must to do
Because of many of them having disfigurements, the people have adjusted to using parts of their bodies as tools and still continuing to go about their lives and work like normal people like how she observes the “lame Mama Mwanza who scurries down the road on her hands.” (Kingsolver, 1998, p. 102). They soon are able to recognize their neighbors because “People wear the same thing day in and day out, and that how [they] recognize them.” (Kingsolver, 1998, p. 102). One major cultural difference that she notices is that in the Congolese children, in “their married eyes” (Kingsolver, 1998, p. 107), many of the children, some no older than Ruth May, are already pregnant and having families within Kilanga. She also notices just how generous the Congo people compared to those within the Americas. As mentioned before, the Congolese have learned early on that they must rely on each other and provide for one another to survive, compared to how in America, there is already so much that it is seen as ‘worry about yourself’ country. This is definitely shown when after the Congo gained independence that the only one that still helped them was Mama Mwanza. “She made her over on the palms of her feet to give us oranges, Independence or not.” (Kingsolver, 1998, p. 206). This display of not pity but generosity means so much to the Prices. Throughout the novel, Leah observes and accepts these differences within the cultures, mostly because she is aware that the people simply don’t know any better. The only thought in their mind is survival and they do what they must to do