The Poisonwood Bible: Key Passage Week 8

Passage: "Set up by the civet cat, the spy, the eye, the hunger of a superior need, Mathuselah is free of his captivity at last. This is what he leaves to the world: gray and scarlet feathers strew over the damp grass. Only this and nothing more, the tell-tale heart, tale of the carnivore. None of what he was taught in the house of the master. Only feathers, without the ball of Hope inside. Feathers at last at last and no words at all."

What is not added in this passage, is how this same day Mathuselah is set free, it is also the day of independence for the Congo. This entire passages foreshadows on how the Congo will survive with their new freedom. For when Mathuselah was freed, in a very short amount of time, he was killed without any words at all. The fact that both were granted their independence on the same day, corresponds to what will happen to the Congo eventually. It is also very interesting how "Hope" is capatilized in this passage. It gives emphasize on that fact that although the Congo did just receive their independence, their is no hope for a successful government and society to arise out of such chaos.

The Poisonwood Bible: Key Passage Week 7

Passage: “All the little Gods are mad at Jesus right now, and they'd like to hurt one of us if they could. If Jesus doesn't look out. I told Nelson that Jesus is way too big to ride around in a little gree-gree. He is big as a man, with long brown hair and sandals, seize extra-large. Nelson says yes, everybody has figured out that. he is right good size. They've a lot of them started going to hear Father talk about Jesus and figure out what's what. But Nelson says they've got one foot in the door of the church and one foot out. If something bad happens to one of us, out they'll go."

It is interesting how Nathan's opinion about how Jesus looks and what is what is now embedded in everyone's brain. He truly brainwashes them all and shows no compromise in the way people think, for if they are going to follow the religion, they are only going to think these certain things. It makes the religion fake, for religion is about expression and finding ourself within the spirituality of your soul. It is clear how Nathan has no soul, and therefore comes across as a dictator, rather than Reverend. It is also interesting how every person of the tribe has no faith in what they are worshipping. There are no true emtions or faith within them if when as soon as something bad happens, they throw away everything else altogether.

The Poisonwood Bible: Key Passage Week 6

Passage: “He noticed the children less and less. He was hardly a father except in the vocational sense, as a potter with clay to be molded. Their individual laughter he couldn’t recognize, now their anguish. He never saw how Adah chose her own exile; how Rachel was dying for the normal life of slumber parties and record albums she was missing. And poor Leah. Leah followed him like an underpaid waitress hoping for the tip. It broke my heart. I sent her away from him on every pretense I knew. It did no good.”


Orleanna expresses how Nathan’s work with the Congo has clearly taken over his role as a father, and although she does not mention it, a husband as well. It is interesting, after hearing what each of these girls express in their own chapters, what their mother picks up on. Nathan is clearly classified a self-centered, stubborn, inconsiderate man. Although he was probably not the best father before they all adventured into Africa, he doesn’t even recognize them anymore. He considers Leah more of an accomplice, rather than daughter, and cannot bring himself to demonstrate any emotion toward his family except anger. At this point, I don’t know why Orleanna has not picked up and left her husband yet; why should she remain loyal to him when he does not give an ounce back to his family, although the tribe will receive him whole heartedly?

The Poisonwood Bible: Key Passage Week 5

Passage: “My steadfast husband tore his hair in private. Without the chief’s blessing he could have no congregation. Nathan burned. There is no other way to say it. Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of all, he declared to the sky, squinting up at God and demanding justice. I held him in my arms at night and saw parts of his soul turn to ash. Then I saw him reborn, with a stone in place of his heart. Nathan would accept no more compromises. God was testing him like Job, he declared, and the point of that particular parable was the Job had done no wrong to begin with. Nathan felt it had been a mistake to bend his will, in any ways, on the subject of river baptism; to listen at all to Tatu Ndu or even the rantings of Mam Tatabe. It had all been a test of Nathan’s strength, and God was displeased with the outcome. He would not fail again.”

Tatu Ndu and Mama Tataba are trying to compromise with Nathan, exclaiming how the people of their tribe will not partake in the event of river baptism because there was a crocodile killing in such waters not too long ago. Such a request seems perfectly reasonable, but Nathan is an extremely stubborn man and won’t listen to anything but the strict guidelines he obeys. I feel as though Nathan is using the Bible verses to come up with reasons to continue acting in such a way. He has no mind set of reason, and no heart to fight with his ruthlessness.

The Poisonwood Bible: Key Passage Week 4

Passage: “I am prone to let doctor’s prophecy and keep my thought to myself. Silence has many advantages. When you do not speak other people presume you to be deaf or feeble-minded and promptly make a show of their own limitations. Only occasionally do I find I have to break my peace: shout or be lost in the shuffle. But mostly am lost in the shuffle. I write and draw in my notebook and read anything I please. It is true I do not speak as well as I can think. But that is true of most people, as nearly as I can tell.”

Adah, a handicapped daughter, speaks of how she cannot speak as well as she think. Although she is talking about herself, I feel as though the entire passage is a reflection of her mother, Orleanna. Orleanna knows of the danger of her situation, and although many thoughts are being provoked within her mind, she cannot bring herself to speak of such ideas. This is all building up to a serious turn in the story, when Orleanna will finally speak her mind, shocking her husband and children. What will cause such an outburst is the mystery that keeps me reading.

The Poisonwood Bible: Key Passage Week 3

Passage: "Slowly Father raised one arm above his head like one of those gods they had in Roman times, fixing to send down the thunderbolts and the lightening. Everyone looked up at him, smiling, clapping, waving their arms over their heads, bare bosoms and all. Then he began to speak. It was not so much a speech as a rising storm."

This simile that compares Reverend Price to a god demonstrates how powerful he truly is. The simile is extended to compare his sermons and words to lightening and thunder. If you think back to Roman times and their gods, it is clear how their lightening and thunder created fear, establishing power within the people. Reverend Price uses such words to gain the respect and fear from the people in Congo. This simile is extremely meaningful towards the rest book, for it represents how powerful Reverend Price gets and why his family turns from him and this lifestyle

The Poisonwood Bible: Key Passage Week 2

Passage: "I would no different from the next one, if I hadn't paid my own little part in blood. I trod on Africa without a thought, straight from our family's divinely inspired beginning to our terrible end. In between, in the midst of all those streaming nights and days darkly colored, smelling of earth, I believe there lay some marrow of honest instruction. Sometimes I can nearly say what it was. If I could, I would fling it at others, I'm afraid, at risk to their ease. I'd slide this awful story off my shoulders, flatten it, sketch out our crimes like a failed battle plan and shake it in the faces of my neighbors, who are wary of me already. But Africa shifts under my hands, refusing to be party to failed relations. Refusing to be any place at all, or any thing but itself: the animal kingdom making hay in the hay the kingdom of glory. So there it is, take your place. Leave nothing for a haunted old bat to use for disturbing the peace. Nothing, save for the life of her own."

Orleanna expresses how the terrible situation she left had been partially her fault. She had known, deep down inside, how loveless and dominating her marriage had been, but she ignored the truth of it all to continue her status in society. The personification that was created within the country of Africa creates an emphasize on how difficult it was to go against religion and society. The world did not approve of her decision to change and therefore, disturb the peace. This quote characterizes Orleanna has an extremely strong willed individual that went against the mainstream of society.