In the novel, The Poisonwood Bible, Orleanna Price was subject to her husband’s strict and inconsiderate ways. He appeared to be living a life that was based on helping other people. When his true intentions were to cover up his own guilt and preserve him a spot in heaven. He holds a heavy guilt on his shoulders so he is constantly trying to save himself without regarding the safety of his family.
Orleanna has to deal with this man and his actions on a daily basis. For that task alone she is admirable. But the main reason I find her behavior condemnable is due to her getting past her passive ways and taking her remaining children out of the Congo, against her husband’s wishes.
In the beginning of the novel, Orleanna proves herself to be a true push-over. She has a passive personality and she never expresses disagreement to her overbearing husband Nathan. This passive trait is the reason she did not contest his decision to move their family to the dangerous Congo. When all the white people are being evacuated from the Congo, Orleanna and her children desperately want to leave and return home. But she lacks the ambition necessary to take control of the situation and leave her husband behind.
The author, Barbara Kingsolver, structures this novel in a way that provides contrast between Orleanna before and after she transforms and abandons her passive ways. Kingsolver’s structural technique influences me to admire Orleanna’s actions. This is a difficult task to perform, especially in her situation. Facing an abusive and negligent husband while chaos is unleashing in the Congo.
The breaking point for Orleanna is when her daughter Ruth May dies from a snake bite. At this point she has had it with her husband. For the first time she realizes all her anger and frustration and disobeys her husband’s command to stay in the Congo. She gathers her remaining children and goes back home, without her husband.
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