Exile In The Poisonwood Bible

She begins her journey with Leah, speaking about how in the womb she can picture Leah taking all of the nutrients while she shriveled, “and so it comes to pass, in the Eden of our mother’s womb, I was cannibalized by my sister” (34). Adah explains to the reader how her doctor informed her parents of her problems. He warned them that she may learn to read but would never speak a word – but she can. She chooses to keep silent instead of speaking out and states, “Occasionally do I find I have to break my peace: shout out or be lost in the shuffle. But mostly am lost in the shuffle” (34). Adah’s silence should not be mistaken for a lack of intelligence. Adah is constantly making references back to pieces of literature; from Jekyll and Hyde to The Scarlet Letter, and questioning her father’s religion, which she does not consider her own, “Would Our Lord be such a hit-or-miss kind of Savior as that?” (171). Adah questions her father’s preaching’s, but does so silently. If she were to speak aloud, she would earn a beating and

soon to change for her, as she is now being forced into a world guarded behind

She stood up to her family and gave them a strong person they could believe and rely on; she organized her family back into their normal actions. Her father then started to rally the Tutsi people who gathered for his guidance to fight against the people who attacked them, whether it is the government or the Interahamwe, which was a Hutu militia.

In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, Poisonwood Bible, she used the transition between narrators which shed light on the perspective of each member of the Price family. The Price family ventures from Georgia to the Congo led by their father, a Baptist Minister. Throughout their journey each narrator dramatically changes. The families influence on the Congo is parallel to western influence in the Congo.

As their journey to and through the Congo is just beginning it is already seen that compromise will be the key source for survival. The Congo did not have much to offer the Price family, though Leah has high expectations for it. She “expected everything: jungle flowers, wild roaring beasts. God’s Kingdom in its pure, unenlightened glory.” ( Kingsolver, 17) The Congo is already revealing an expectation Leah would never have found between the pages of a King James version, the rewiring of her thoughts on equality and her inner need to fight for justice are compelling emotions that are overtaking her. She can see that this place poses a potential challenge much greater than anything a hot Georgia summer put her family through. Still measuring her worth in the few short breaths her father permits her, Leah is still determined the Congo would not stop her from gaining the acceptance of her father. “If only I could ever bring forth all that I knew quickly enough to suit father” (Kingsolver, 37), but little did she know that nothing her female mind could do or say would suit the righteous Nathan Price. Similar to The White Man’s Burden, once given the thought of superiority nothing “beneath’ that was beneficial. Leah’s cognitive thought process is starting its shift into survivor instead of

husband and children began to set in, I think she realized she lacked worth and was not content

Sometimes in the novel the theme turns to a point when the narratives of the novel feels burden of guilt. Kingsolver writes this story from many different perspectives to show the guilt and show the narrow minded people like Nathan Price. It tells us their guilt about them when one of their sister died and the guilt they face as they are related in tragedies happened in the Africa. In the novel women’s subject is shown in the forefront. The Price’s family is missionary who are showing the violence and process of the colonization. Nathan Price is shown as a hero in the story who went to the Jungles of Africa and is fully devoted to his work. He as shown as both violence and ignorant man who took his family into the jungles. Orleanna Price believes in the god and care about her

throughout the novel. Exile is when you are severed or banished from a person, place, or thing.

for herself and safety of her daughters. In 1959, a baptist minister, Nathan Price drags his wife

due to her never being saw as equal compared to others, especially her sisters. Adah’s

Soon she had forgotten her childhood years— she blocked the raid and her capture from her memory—and has finally adopted the ways of her people (Native Americans) She has forgotten the English language, and has only one desire. For many years she had been raised by Native Americans. At first she was a slave to the Native Americans, but eventually she was treated and saw as one of them. She learned their heritage, ways of living, language, and ways. She even married the chief and great warrior, Peta Nocona. With whom she had later had children with.

she had not heeded her heart sooner, and departed the Congo.( cited by Goldblatt, Patricia F.

There, she feared leaving her home because of crime in her neighborhood, thus she almost always stayed in her home. This is one of many reasons why people immigrate to the U.S. However, since they are illegal, they are often sent back, with the U.S government ignorant of what exactly they’re sending them back to. To illustrate, Martine Kalaw wrote about the time she was almost deported in her article “America Should Think Hard About Deporting Illegal Immigrants Like Me”. The immigration judge had threatened Kalaw with deportation by sending her to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where he thought she belonged. What he may not have (or may have) knew was that the DRC was violating human rights, such as the systematic rape of women especially in Eastern Congo, and war was also taking place in the DRC at that time. Another example is with Syrian refugees recently coming into the U.S, raising debate about letting them stay. But what people who are against the idea don’t seem to realize that sending those refugees back will send them to a country that is currently in a brutal war between a terrorist group and Syrian rebel militias, hence, the reason the refugees fled in the first

innocence and started seeing the world for what it actually was.The speaker at Maya Angelou's

In the chapter titled “Reflections on Exile,” Edward Said discusses the different aspects of being an exile. His discussion of exile includes what it means to be an exile, the feelings that being an exile produces in individuals, exile in relation to nationalism, and the role of exile in the modern world.  Said first defines being an exile as a state of terminal loss. He states, “the achievements of exile are permanently undermined by the loss of something left behind forever” (173).  He then contrasts this terminal loss with the cultural impact that exile has had on the modern West.  He states that, “modern Western culture is in large part the work of exiles,” (173) and, “our age[...] is indeed the age of the refugee, the displaced