Evolution of the characters portrayed in the Poisonwood Bible - Essay Example

EVOLUTION OF THE CHARACRERS, LEAH AND ADAH AS PORTRAYED IN THE NOVEL THE POISONWOOD BIBLE Kingsolver’snovel, The Poisonwood Bible, pictures two main characters Leah Price and Adah Price, who are very similar in many ways. They both are different from each other, and an extent an exaggeration of the real people. There is always a mixture of good and bad traits in a human being. Therefore, we cannot condemn a person as totally as vicious or virtuous. The book beautifully explains the ideology, that contrasting personalities can co-exist within a family and adjust their lives in an unknown country. "We Barbara came from Bethlehem, Georgia, bearing Betty Crocker cake mixes into the jungle," (12) says Leah, one of Nathans daughters. Life is tough in Africa and the unbearable heat worsens their attitude towards others. The Price family, which consists of Nathan, Orleanna, Rachel, Leah, Adah and Ruth-May are dissimilar individuals. Moreover, their difference of opinions and varied personality cause many problems in the household while they are in Congo. There is constantly a clash of conflict between them all. The air tenses whenever the sisters come together. Especially, within Price family, the twin sisters Leah and Adah have extraordinary characters and attitudes. Though they are twins, they are world apart from each other. Their views of life are very independent from each other, and this parts them from their sister bondage to develop very different style of lives in Congo. Leah is a girl who cares about others and focuses most of her attention on people. She is a very loving and respects people around her. She sees her family as a part of her being, and loves to make her family comfortable. She always takes an affirmative action to improve any situation that faces in her life .She is portrayed as beautiful, intelligent, and full of guilt. This feeling of guilt was due to Adah’s deformation. The writer describes her as an inquisitive teenager. She finds herself at home in Africa, but is always troubled because she thinks she is responsible for her twin’s deformity. She is a tomboy and easily befriends everyone. Adah, on the other hand, is a cripple from her mother’s womb. She cannot control her left side of her body. She for the first time finds acceptance in her life. In Africa, nothing is weird. The physical deformity is normal aspect of life here. The members of her family consider her as wise. Yet she acts as mute. "Through Adah eyes, the world is a-boggle"(30). She finds that there is no language barrier for her to communicate with the natives. People here do not pity her. Nevertheless, she expects pity wherever she goes. Life in Africa is harsh. Therefore, nobody pities her, and this irritates her. She is shy, reserved and an introvert. These two dissimilar personalities do not only grasp the readers’ interests in the story, but their reaction to the circumstances in Congo sustains the reader’s interest. In addition, it is interesting to record their response to the situations that occur within their family. They show many contradictory qualities in their relationship with family and Congolese. Moreover, they are enthusiastic about what is going in the society that the incidents they encounter. Kingsolver has built both the characters strongly and real to life. . Adah is eager to leave Congo through out the novel, and she finally leaves Congo. Leah becomes the mother of four children and sacrifices her personal life in working for the people in Congo. She, just like her father Nathan, devotes herself for the betterment of people of Congo. Leah’s life is more meaningful than her sister’s lives. Leah adapts well to the life in Congo than Adah. This is because she is more tolerant, patient and service minded. Her guilt for her sister also plays a role in her decisions. Throughout the course of the novel, Leah’s tolerance and Adah intolerance affects their successful adaptation to Congo. Therefore, it can be argued that of the two, Leah’s open-mindedness and positive attitude in her life makes her have more fulfilling relationship. She interacts with others and adapts the Congo’s cultures and natural environment more successfully than Adah. To prove this, we will compare their interactions and relationships with people around them, their attitudes towards their experiences in natural environment in the Congo, and their adulthood. The novel shows both Leah and Adah are identical twins, raised by Nathan and Orleanna Price. The people they meet are the same in the Congo, but the way they treat people around them are different, and this shows the vast dissimilarity in their characters. Leah knows where she is heading in her life and she interacts well with many people around her. Over the course of their journey, Leah’s ability to make friends with Congolese, and her tolerant personality helped her to adapt Congo’s cultures than Adah. Because of her sulky nature, she could not form any relation with the Congolese. Leah is idealistic, passionate about Congo; and she worshipped her father and believed with all her heart in his views. When her sisters were helping the housework, she preferred to talk with her father. She worked with him in his garden, and there they use to discuss the Bible. This makes her devoted to God like her father. She said, “It has opened up in my heart a sickening world of doubts and possibilities, where before I had only faith in my father and love for the Lord” (293). She is always her father’s side and respects him very much. However, she adores not only her father, but also takes a good care to Ruth May. Leah feels guilty and regrets after she says terrible things to scare Ruth May, but this she justifies, is to make Ruth May safe. It shows her love for her baby sister, It (she) used to threaten Ruth May’s life so carelessly just to make her behave. Now [she] has to face the possibility that [they] really could lose her, and [her] heart felt like a soft, damaged place in [her] chest, like a bruise on a petch (283). She does not talk much to Rachel, but even though Rachel says awful things to her, she said, “I was shocked, not so much by her language but by the strength of that pitch” (289). This shows that she is tolerant to other people. She does not blame Rachel but understands her instead. She does not only have good relationship with her family but she also interacts and tries hard to talk and meet other people in the Congo. Leah has a strong bond with her first new friend in the Congo, Pascal, who plays many games with. Adah says, “Leah’s friend Pascal was the only one who still came around occasionally, wanting Leah to come out and scout the bush for adventures with him” (261). Even Adah admit that Leah is outgoing person and her adventurous personality makes her to have good friend. Her relationship with Brother Fowles shows her open-minded personality. Even after her marriage with Anatole, Fowles visits her house and gives her news and advice. In addition, Anatole is another character that she cares for, in her life. She used to talk about politics and life story with him. They have good understanding with each other and their vision in life is the same. She marries him later on. Her characteristics and ability to have strong relationship with others helps her to adapt to Congo. Adah is able to add humor into situations of her life. She cleverly comments on them .This ability shines throughout the novel. For news or mail or evidence of what Rachel calls The Pale Which We are Way Beyond, we wait for the rough-and-ready airplane pilot, Mr. Eeben Axelroot. He is reliable in the following way: if they say he is coming on Monday, it will be Thursday, Friday, or not at all (33). She can be sarcastic, and she does not hesitate to voice out her bitterness. She calls her father ‘Our Father’, which states how he is in command of his house; and is dominating though he is doing God’s ministry. Both Adah and Leah react differently to the same incidents that happen to them. Adah complains about natural environment in the Congo but Leah shows love towards the Congo and better adapts to Congo’s nature. Even though Rachel and Leah were born and raised at the same time; and come from the same background, their adulthoods are completely different. Their adulthood clearly shows whether they have successfully adapted in Congo or not. Leah becomes a woman who takes care and sacrifices herself both to her family and to society. Leah has a strong relationship with her husband, who she loves dearly. They understand and support each other. Leah supports his vision of fighting for independence. Even though she has to undergo turmoil, and worries when her husband is arrested, she still loves him and never gives up on him. She cries for the people who died in the movements; and the Congolese children who suffer for hunger and lack of hope and help. When she finds out that a little girl is going to be a prostitute, she angrily tells her, “It’s horrible, you don’t know. You’ll be scared and hurt and could get terribly sick” (546). This shows her care for other people. She contributes a lot in helping poor people to improve themselves by volunteering at the clinic, teaching students and classes. Moreover, she is the only one who cries for other members of her family. She wonders whether they are doing well and truly misses them as they live far away from each other. She thinks of her family all the time. When she rocks her baby and asks the fire to “keep [the] body [she] already [loves] so much from going cold” (598), she remembers her mom doing the same thing: “kneeling and talking … to a bottle of antibiotics when Ruth May was so sick” (598). Leah still moans for the death of Ruth May: “January 17, in my selfish heart, is Ruth May’s only” (511). At the end of her story, she says, “If I have to hop all the way on one foot, damn it, I’ll find a place I can claim as home” (607). The only thing she wants at the end is home. Leah has grown a lot. Garret Wilson, a renowned critic talks of the novel in his review as What is it about the subject of twins that make them such a common subject for authors? ….Perhaps its because twins provide a good paradigm for society. Identical twins, indistinguishable genetically, nevertheless grow to become different, each furthering his/her uniqueness, yet always remaining in some ways identical to the other. Perhaps this provides too much of a temptation for an author to mirror social issues, to reflect a group of individuals which are living in an identical environment while exploring the implications of their differences.(Wilson, n.p.) To conclude this novel is very powerful, and troubles the conscience of the readers with the questions it raises. It provides insight into the twins who are world apart in their physical, mental, and social approach to the real life. One of them is able to survive, though taunted by the guilt that she destroyed her twin’s life. The other was a miserable failure and an unfit. This was because of the restriction she dictated to herself. A person can make or break her own life. She has a free will to choose her paths and make it a success. Leah took the less traveled road and is gifted with peace, joy, and happiness in her life. Though financially she is not a success, she has found relations that she could boast in her life. However, Adah could not keep up to the pace of this materialistic world. She only has bitter feelings. She is not ready to face the challenges of live. She tries to relive the past and goes in search of it. ************ WORKS CITED Barnes, and Noble. (Eds.), Rev. of The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, Sep. 1999 http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp Harper Torch, 28 Jan. 2003 < http://www.grisi.us/The.Poisonwood.Bible Harper Torch Wilson, Garret. Rev. of The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, Harper Perennial, New York, 1999. January12,2000 Read More