preview

The Poisonwood Bible Adh Character Analysis

Decent Essays

Adah Ellen Price, the middle daughter of Nathan and Orleanna Price, is the most transformed and rehabilitated character, both mentally and physically, in the novel “The
Poisonwood Bible,” by Barbara Kingsolver. Throughout the novel, Adah develops into an entirely different person/character than the Adah who lived in Bethlehem, Georgia.
Her development begins as soon as she sets foot on the dirt of the Congo. She goes from seeing herself as a lesser being due to her handicap, to a blossoming young woman who can receive a great education. She is also the first to see the Congolese people as equals, due to her never being saw as equal compared to others, especially her sisters. Adah’s progress could be emblematic of what Nathan was trying to accomplish …show more content…

At a point in the novel, Adah decides that she is no longer a Christian. She is forced to pray about her questioning of religion, which further solidifies her beliefs because of the issues she is facing at that moment in time. After she finally decides that she is for sure not a religious girl, many changes happen. To quote Ernest Hemingway,
“All thinking men are atheists.” If this is the case, Adah Price is definitely not religious because she does the most in depth thinking out of the family and likely more than anyone in the village of Kalanga. Adah’s rejection of religion allows her to see the problems that go along, such as God having injustice towards a Congolese person just because of the dark pigment of their skin, and the numerous ways that Nathan is a very dishonest and crooked “missionary” who is only trying to be a “missionary” in the Congo to reach atonement with himself from WWII. She can see many of the things than many other members of the Price family, as well as other inhabitants of the village, fail to …show more content…

In many ways, the reader may wish that these dynamic changes in Adah could have happened to her father. If her father would have been willing to open his mind and see that he couldn’t just force a religion upon a group of people, he would have been susceptible to changing and could have been a better father for his daughters and a better husband for his life. He only cared about his missionary work, and it was his first and only priority. It’s ironic that the one person he looked down upon the most ends up being more successful than him, and wiser by any means. It’s heartbreaking to think that Nathan brought his family with
Green 2 him to attempt to bring change upon the Congolese people and society, but he did nothing of the sort. Adah is the only one who ends up leaving the Congo with her mother,
Orleanna.
Even after she leaves the Congo, Adah is still being polished by the impact

Get Access