Rebecca Henkels
May 4, 2014
Period 4
PWB Essay
Walking into the Light
Imagine leaving everything you know behind to move to a foreign continent where you don’t know the language, culture, or people. “The Poisonwood Bible” tells a story of the journey of a mother and her four daughters who move from Bethlehem, Georgia to the small village of Kilanga, Congo in the early 1960s, who had to do exactly that. They learn that everything they thought to be true was wrong, and experienced things that would forever change them. The Price women journey through the four stages of the hero, learning how to deal with change, the truth of womanhood, and how to live with the burden of guilt.
Nathan Price, the controlling husband to Orleanna and the father of the four Price girls, survived World War II, but feels a debt to evangelize as many people as he can. In order to do this he packs up his family and moves them to Kilanga. While Nathan is off trying to baptize the Congolese, the women are left to take care of everything at home. They soon start to notice that everything they do seems to be completely wrong. The Betty Crocker Cake Mix Orleanna bought for birthdays will not cook, and Nathan can’t get a single person to the river to baptize them. Rachel, the self-centered oldest daughter, is appalled at the different way that they dress, and how the days of the week are completely different there. This is their stage of innocence; they are holding one to the life that they lived in America. When Nathan tries to plant a garden to show Congolese people how to live, he refuses to take the advice of the people. His garden’s failure is a sign to the family that they must learn the ways of Congo, not the other way around.
Stage Two, initiation, is where the Price women learn that they must learn how to survive in the Congo. Everything they thought and brought was wrong, as Orleanns says, “A foreign mother and child assuming themselves in charge, suddenly slapped down to nothing by what they saw us to be” (89). This stage is when Orleanna learns that she is not the property of her husband, while Nathan completely blocks out his family and continues to trying to convert the Congolese people without any success. Leah, the tomboy middle daughter, tries to befriend the children, without any luck at first. Ruth May, the youngest Price, befriends most of the children in the village, playing “Mother May?” In this stage the Prices begin to assimilate with the Congolese people.
Stage two not only initiates the Price family into Congolese life, but also the politics of Congo. When Ruth May falls out of a tree and breaks her, she must fly to the city with Nathan to go to the hospital. While Nathan talks with the doctor, Ruth May overhears them argue over politics. The Belgians, who once dictated Congo, were leaving the land, and helping establish a Congolese government. After many warnings, including one from the heads of the mission, Nathan refuses to leave, even though he is putting his family in danger. Orleanna tries to leave with her daughters, but with no resources of her own, she can’t.
Stage three, chaos, begins with Orleanna and Ruth May stuck sick in bed. Rachel, Leah and Adah must learn how to feed the family on their own or face the wrath of their father. In this stage Leah, who once adored her father, is now seeing him in a more clear light, while Adah feels betrayed by her mother for not saving her from the Lion ants. Orleanna soon gets well, but Ruth May has caught malaria and is only a former shell of her. Not to mention that the village chief has asked for Rachel’s hand in marriage, which puts the family in a tricky situation.
Not only is there chaos in the family, but chaos in the town. The new system of voting has caused the village people to turn against the Price family, and themselves. They voted out Jesus Christ in a town election to the dismay of Nathan. Also with the dry season upon them, the village decides it’s time for a hunt, which is a special ritual for them where everyone participates. Leah decides not to take the socially accepted role of the women, but instead to hunt the animals, which is traditionally reserved for the men. This causes utter chaos in the village. Brother versus brother, son versus father, the town is divided.
The tangible division of the town causes the town witchdoctor, Kuvudundu, to place snakes in the houses of those who go against his traditions. The Prices’ family friend Anatole receives one, and well as Nelson, the family’s helper. When the girls go to check on the snake, Ruth May is bitten and tragically dies. For the sisters, the world around them turns surreal. As Rachel says, “We would not wake up from this nightmare to find out it was someone’s real life, and for once that someone wasn’t just a poor unlucky nobody in a shack you could forget about. It was our life, the only one we were going to have. The only Ruth May.”(367) Ruth May’s death is the last straw for Orleanna. After the burial, she gives away all her nonessential items, packs up her daughters and leaves Kilanga carrying only the things she can put on her back.
Stage four of the process of the hero deals with how each Price deals with their guilt. Orleanna carries her guilt like a burden. She can never forgive herself for what happened to her baby, but she chooses to keep on moving with her life, saying,
“To live is to be marked. To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals really know. In perfect stillness, frankly, I’ve only found sorrow.” (385)
Rachel, the opposite of Orleana, can’t carry her burden. She lives an unfulfilled life full of drinks, parties, and superficial ways to make her seem happy. She knows deep down inside herself that she feels to blame for Ruth May’s death, but she chooses to ignore it. Leah feels not only the guilt of her sister’s death, but the guilt of being a part of the Western culture. She marries Anatole, and stays in the Congo since returning to America feels wrong to her. She tries to right her wrongs and is extremely politically involved. Leah is the mother of four boys, paralleling her own mother. It is there that she truly understand what her mother felt at Ruth May’s death. Adah lives a life of balance. She comforts herself in her new religion of science. She dedicates herself to studying African parasites. She knows that she must move on, but never forget, “The power is in the balance: we are our injuries, as much we are our successes.” (496) Nathan refused to move on with his life. His mind wasn’t stuck on Ruth May, like everyone else, but WW2. He stayed permanently stuck in the past.
The final Price that we see enter stage four is Ruth May. As she narrates the final book she tells her weeping mother that she must forgive herself. She need not place any landmark on her grave; she only needs to keep her in her heart. She tells her mother “Move on. Walk forward into the light,” (543) She must continue to live, because death is what makes life so precious.
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