The Poisonwood Bible: Key Passage Week 1

Passage: "And my husband, why, the hell hath no fury like a Baptist preacher. I married a man who could never love me, probably. It would have trespassed on his devotion to all mankind. I remained his wife because it was one thing I was able to do each day. My daughters would say:You see, Mother, you had no life of your own. They had no idea. One has only a life of one's own."

Orleanna Price describes a man that gave his soul to his congrugation. In loving his wife, he was inadequate, for there was nothing left of him after giving himself up to his work. Orleannas' daughters describe how their mother did not have a life of her own due to her willingness to serve her husband's instead. Orleanna exclaims how she does have a life of her own; it was her decision to serve another. The author uses diction to arrange the words of Orleannas’ daughters into a way that she could then describe her own life; what it had become.