Works Cited

Danelek, Jeff. "Top 10 Worst Military Leaders in History." Top 10 Lists RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.

"Death Quotes." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.

"Democratic Republic of Congo: Environmental Profile." Democratic Republic of Congo: Environmental Profile. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.

"Quotes About Death." (3919 Quotes). N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.

Rants, Daniel. "Fidel Castro Admits He Is A Failure." Daniels Rants. N.p., 11 Sept. 2010. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.

"Seven People Who Gave up on Civilization to Live in the Wild." MNN - Mother Nature Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.

It may be exciting to move to a new place, but the Price family had to endure a slightly different moving experience that many of us will never have to go through.  The African Congo is known for its precarious "100 million-hectare jungle that conceals more than 12,000 different organisms" (Mongabay.com).  What normal family could function without any complications in such an environment like the Congo?  This treacherous situation that was brought upon the family must have played the dominating cause of the members' dispersion from each other.

No kid enjoys being dragged from the nice, fun playground to go run errands with his mom.  However, it's hard to complain when the Price children were swept away to some daunting jungle that lacked any form of technology they are used to from light poles to gumball machines.  Upon arrival, the family is faced with countless differences that they must adapt to in order to get by without going insane.  With their house now being a hut and their neighbors looking at them as if they're all Lady Gaga, this family was immediately put out of its comfort zone and pushed to the extremes of cooperation.  It's definitely not as easy as being the new kid in a new school.

Everyone adapts to a new situation differently; therefore, when you get different reactions to a problem there are bound to be some disputes.  With Nathan's God-given mission he strives to fulfill, Leah's rebellious nature, and the lackadaisical result of such stress that is imposed on Orleanna, the Price family was in a worse state than the Kardashians.  The anxieties associated with little living space and only having each other to speak English to definitely expound upon the levels of tolerance and serenity within the "huthold".  The family did not exactly argue with one another, but they for sure did not agree with the way of life they were living.  This takes a great tole on the family, for it was a little more extreme than our society of families arguing on where to go out to dinner.

The Price family was not fully prepared for a wild jungle environment; in fact, many people have fallen short when living in such extreme environments.  For example, Tim Treadwell, an environmentalist and filmmaker, "lived amongst the grizzly bears of Alaska for 13 summers, but was eventually eaten" (Mother Nature Network).  This family has to work around many intimidating struggles like the unforgiving river that gave Nathan a bad name due to his desire to baptize people in crocodile-infested waters and the life-threatening animals that prey on small children like Ruth May.  These civilized Christian folks just waltzed into a minefield of dangers lurking around every shadow.  What family could possibly remain stable and keep sanity when you don't even know if you'll wake up with everyone still alive?  These days parents flip out if they can't find their kids in a ball pit at Chuckee Cheese's, let alone losing them in a death trap jungle.

A family like the Prices were not exactly normal, but they reacted the same way any normal family would've in a situation like the one in which they were placed.  Random strangers grabbing their hair, death striking from every angle, and a cripple mentally whining about every downfall led to a very uncomfortable atmosphere the family was challenged to push through.  The many difficulties that accompanied the move the Prices made affected each family member differently, this ultimately causing them to go their separate ways.  All families have issues to deal with, but nothing like the African Congo.


-Nick Gant

Congo Flag

Mamba Snake

   

Ruth May's Significance

Take a moment to picture a loving family eroding away into chaos and having their lives forever changed for the worse; seems kind of unrealistic, doesn’t it? Well that’s exactly what happened in the tragic tale the Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver; an innocent family spirals into a dark abyss of pain, loss, and finally separation. They moved to the Congo on a mission to persuade the natives into following their beliefs; what they didn’t count on was the difficulties they’d encounter in order to achieve their goal. But what on Earth could cause a family to fall into such ruins? I answer with only two words: Ruth May.

            Ruth May is one of four daughters of Nathan and Orleanna Price. She is a quiet and soft-spoken young woman who’s trying to adjust to the sudden change both environmentally and spiritually.  She doesn’t directly play a role in her family’s deterioration but she still has a major effect because even the deaths of people not well known can still cause a dramatic change. For example, the quote, “The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living” by Marcus Tullius Cicero, expounds upon my view. It’s meaning can be interpreted as but not limited to the point that the death of Ruth May haunted her family because after she died. They realized how important she had been.

            Another quote that helps my view is as follows: ”Love and death are the two great hinges on which all human sympathies turn.” This quote by B. R. Hayden lets us know that death has a profound effect on the living and can cause strange emotions to lead to even stranger reactions, like causing a family to splinter and go their separate ways, perhaps. I’ll leave it at that. After Ruth May’s death, her family probably felt like they were missing an important part of themselves and decided that the best way to deal with change is to change as well in order to counteract the effects.

            In all, Ruth May’s death is very significant in The Poisonwood Bible. Her end is the catalyst that causes the Price family to alter their life styles and head into the future without looking back at the past. Her sisters decided to split and go their own ways, one staying in the Congo to continue to help the inhabitants, and the others along with their mom returning to America to continue their lives the way they were before they left. In closing, the demise of one is the demise of all.

Who brought them their?  Who taught them their christian ways?  Who pushed them too far.  The answer to all three of these is simply: Nathan.  Nathan Price, the father of the Price family, was the main factor of the breakup of the Price family and the various paths they took after their Congo adventure.  Similar to Fidel Castro, "the former political leader of Cuba who caused his country's economic system to go haywire," Nathan causes the family to go crazy (Rant, Daniel).  Although their are many, two main reasons Nathan was the source of this split are: he pushed the family too far, and he put the villagers spiritual life above his own family's physical life.

Certainly, we know that Rachel didn't want to go to the Congo at all from the start, so she was already a problem.  As for the rest of the children, they might have had some opposition, it was never as much as Rachel's, Ruth May was even excited.  If we were to compare Nathan's enforcement of his ways of doing things to someone in real life, it would be Benjamin F. Butler, "a militaristic general in New Orleans who made the Nazi Gestapo look like a Catholic girl's school choir by pushing them way past their limits," (TopTenz.net).One scene that particularly shows Nathan's far fletched attitude is when he makes his children do "The Verse."  Although this may seem just a simple punishment, the children's father told them christianity was the only way and he never let the explore new ideas or even somewhat stray from Christian viewpoints and values.

When the Price family was forced with the decision of staying in the Congo without financial support, Nathan immediately said their family was staying.  The people couldn't believe that the Price's were getting to be as poor as they were.  This is just yet another example of Nathan's involvement in the family's split.  It is a crucial point in the story because it causes so much pain and suffering in their lives.  We can see from this that Nathan really puts the people in front of his family's physical needs.  They might starve, but never would Nathan let up and go back to America.

As we have examined, not only were there the two main factors, Nathan pushing too far and the fact that he put the people's lives and "needs" in front of his own, but that there were many other smaller ones which added up to equal the downfall of the Price family.

-Evan Snider

(Fidel Castro)                     (Benjamin F. Butler)