A Study of the Character of the Poisonwood Preacher

Throughout The Poisonwood Bible, author Barbara Kingsolver utilizes Nathan Price as a representation of the dangers of the mixture of religious fervor and power in the wrong hands. This is not which means to state that religion on its own is bad influence, but that it has the potential to be if it is implemented in the incorrect way – forced by judgment or focused only on specific written guidelines rather than the ideology and accurate meaning behind it. Nathan is an impeccable example of the ‘dangerous hands’ religious manage must not be placed into. He makes use of the bible like a weapon, bludgeoning the people of Kilanga with his strict beliefs of Christianity rather than approaching them with flexible strategies and an ease of adaptation to their hugely differing culture. A single of the significant flaws in Nathan Price’s religious practice is his failure to recognize the true meaning of Christianity. Instead, he focuses only on the certain requirements and rules set by the bible word for word, such as baptism or prayer, when he need to be embracing the spirit of the religion, such as compassion, love, and kindness.

A prime illustration of this obliviousness is Nathan’s interaction with his loved ones. Nathan consistently prioritizes his religious mission more than his household, neglecting to show his wife and daughters the enjoy and care they deserve. Orleanna Value, Nathan’s wife, usually informs the reader of his neglect through her storytelling of his therapy of her all through their marriage. Major up to her marriage with Nathan Price at a young age of 17, Orleanna had been a vibrant, passionate, and ambitious young girl living in Mississippi. When she enters marriage, she loses nearly all sense of will and becomes an obedient and passive housewife. Orleanna is undermined by her husband’s greater priority of religion to the point at which his actions towards her are not simply of neglect, but disgust “He was profoundly embarrassed by my pregnancies. To his way of thinking they had been unearned blessings, and in addition each and every one drew God’s interest anew to my possessing a vagina and his getting a penis and the reality we’d laid them close to enough collectively to conceive a child” (Web page 198, Orleanna). Nathan does not view reproduction with his wife as a lovely and blessed occasion, but rather a shameful action in God’s eyes. Nathan’s neglect doesn’t cease at his wife it carries onward to a lack of care for his whole loved ones.

When the Congo turned to a politically unstable state in the midst of the war, the Mission State wanted to pull the Cost loved ones out of the nation and back to safety within American borders. However, Nathan chose to disregard the Mission State’s tips and fought against his family’s need to listen to it “Mother tries to clarify to him day in and day out about how he is placing his personal children in jeopardy of their lives, but he will not even listen to his personal wife, a lot significantly less his mere eldest daughter” (Page 176, Rachel). He risks losing his whole loved ones with out hesitation just to continue his goal of diffusing Christianity all through the Congo. Now, some might see this as a selfless and humble decision to make, but Nathan did not make this choice because he believed the Congolese men and women needed faith he did this to satisfy his personal want to be profitable in his spread of the Christian faith. Additionally, Nathan continues to demonstrate his priority ranking of religion as greater than his personal family members following the death of his daughter Ruth Might Price. In instant reaction to the death of Ruth Could, Nathan Price tag exclaims, “She wasn’t even baptized yet” (Page 368, Nathan), in a state of shock. The event of losing a child usually causes a traumatic emotional response however, Nathan only expressed his concern of failing to fulfill his personal religious mission.

Despite the rest of the loved ones possessing passionate and devastating reactions to Ruth May’s death – “As lengthy as I kept moving, my grief streamed out behind me like a swimmer’s lengthy hair in water. I knew the weight was there but it didn’t touch me. Only when I stopped did the slick, dark stuff of it come floating around my face, catching my arms and throat till I started to drown” (Page 281, Orleanna) – and mourning her deeply, Nathan persisted to utilize her death to fulfill his ultimate aim of baptizing the Congolese. His absence of a organic, human response to his daughter’s death goes to show his selfishness and unnecessarily low priority for his family members. Furthermore, Nathan’s comment soon after Ruth May’s death, “She wasn’t even baptized yet” (Web page 368, Nathan), is a sign of his hypocrisy as a ‘devout Christian.’ Nathan steadily preaches the value of baptism to all of the Congolese peoples, but he never baptized his personal daughter. This leads to the discussion of religious hypocrisy that heavily lives on in today’s society, whether it is a enormous scandal or the discreet however tangible group of faulted Christians. In instance, the Holy See of the Catholic Church released news in 2010 that practically three,000 priests had allegations of sex abuse over the final fifty years. The bible clearly states, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor guys who practice homosexuality,” (1 Corinthians 6:9). As a secondary instance, an additional primary problem with religious institutions’ infliction of belief on the members of society is Planned Parenthood and the use of any kind of contraception.

Due to clerical celibacy, a priest is not permitted to marry or have kids. Therefore, he does not encounter the struggles and hardships of supporting a family. The reality that priests preach to churchgoers that they need to not divorce or use any form of contraception is merely hypocritical. They are unable to recognize the dynamics of living with a wife and youngsters and the situations that generate a difficulty in following the strict requirements of strict preaching of Christianity, such as being unable to financially support another youngster leading to the use of birth control, or getting such a cruel connection with your spouse that each of you – and your youngsters if any – are greater off separated. It is simple for a single man with no youngsters to preach the abstention from forms of birth manage, sex, and divorce, as he in no way comes to face those concerns. Though this story took spot in a different time period, Kingsolver outlines these faults in Christian institutions through the actions and qualities of her characters. In continuation of Nathan’s inadequate strategies of preaching, his ambitions of diffusing Christianity are too focused on the salvation, such as heaven and hell, that he is oblivious to the accurate concerns of reality sitting right in front of him and makes no effort to attend to them like a correct missionary would.

As an example, Mama Tataba tells him the people of the Congo do not want to be baptized in the river “She [a girl in the village] got killed and eaten by a crocodile. They do not let their kids step foot in the river, ever. Not even to be washed in the Blood of the Lamb” (Page 81, Leah). Even after becoming told that a child’s life was lately taken there and that the people of Kilanga will eventually refuse to enter the waters for baptism, he does not alter his method but just persists to preach the importance and necessity of baptism and that the river is the only correct spot to do so.General, Nathan Value is a stern, rigid, and inflexible preacher who has no desire to adapt to the Congolese culture. He remains unable to acclimate to his new atmosphere, therefore hindering his religious influence over the people of Kilanga. All through the story, he tends to make no try to amend his approaches for the greatest of the Congolese peoples “he confronts and attempts to adjust a folks he does not understand” (Purcell). He is unable to adapt to new atmosphere and culture and does not spread Christianity in the right way to implement the greatest impact on the Congolese religiously, failing to refrain from influencing all of their ideology, culture, and general way of life. His daughters’ preserve a excellent understanding of their father’s tough nature, as Leah explains, “Everything you’re confident is proper can be incorrect in another place. Particularly here” (Page 505, Leah). Though this quote is in reference to the specific language differences from English to Congolese, it has a deeper and broadly applicable meaning to her father and his inflexible practices.

Additionally, Nathan is convinced that his suggestions are superior, even when he is proved wrong with concrete evidence and valid details. His very very first action in Kilanga, attempting to farm the land, is a ideal example of his righteousness. Although it is shown that his technique purely does not work. Nathan refuses to listen to Mama Tataba’s tips about cropping and planting the seeds appropriately. He hastily continues to plant in the garden, “He bent over and started to rip out long handfuls of grass with rapid, energetic jerks as although tearing out the hair of the world” (Web page 36, Leah), displaying his disturbance by being proved wrong and his stubbornness by refusing to admit he was incorrect. He ends up killing all of the crops and wasting time and sources, harming all the other men and women of Kilanga but feeding his personal ego as he, in his mind, was proper again. This is a static characteristic of Nathan that was foreshadowed all through the book by his household, “It’s tougher to picture a mortal man far more unwilling to alter his course than Nathan Price” (Page 96, Orleanna). Likewise, Nathan refuses to listen or consider all others’ opinions and seeks only the mission sent to him by God. This ties into the reality that he uses God and religion to exert his arrogance and want for control to show that he is correct and all others’ opinions are inferior.

As previously and repeatedly stated, Nathan is a really arrogant, judgmental, and naïve man. He uses his religious mission to satiate himself by creating him really feel greater and feeding his arrogance by way of his capability to be condescending to those who are “unsaved”. He is as well focused on his personal salvation that he does not genuinely care about the saving of other people souls or their effectively-being, only the prosperity it will bring him if he is productive in his mission. He leads himself to think that the way to secure his spot to salvation is by converting as many souls to Christianity as feasible, even though that isn’t necessarily the direct meaning behind Christianity. As his daughter explains, “Father wants permission only from the Savior” (page 36, Leah), whose words Nathan tends to take too practically also seriously.

Contrarily, Kingsolver utilizes Brother Fowles as a representation of the ‘good’ of religion and the appropriate hands it should placed in in order to prosper. Fowles is the foil to Nathan Price’s close-minded and selfish preaching style as he is open to understanding the Congolese culture and operates to incorporate it into his teaching of Christianity “He does not proselytize, but rather engages in dialogue with the indigenous folks [of the Congo]” (Purcell). He acknowledges that many of the ‘parables’ in the bible do not make sense to the Congolese folks as they are unable to relate to and comprehend it contextually, and some of them only work if “you change a couple of words” (page 246). Fowles is an open interpreter of the Bible and doesn’t follow it word for word, but applies the true meaning behind it in a broader and more understandable way to the Congolese individuals. He doesn’t only care to change the Congolese people’s way of life in order to attain salvation, but as an alternative focuses on teaching how the Christian ideology can be applied to their “daily experiences of life” (Purcell). Kingsolver creates a heavy contrast between Nathan Price tag and Brother Fowles that shines light on the ‘bad’ and the ‘good’ of religion and the hazard of abusing it’s strength. She characterizes the two reverends via the girls’ – Orleanna, Rachel, Leah, Ruth-May, Adah – perspectives and perceptions of each males and men’s actions throughout the novel.

Kingsolver hence portrays every character in diverse approaches via the girls’ voices they speak of their father, Nathan, in a harsh and nearly annoyed tone, while they speak of Brother Fowles in a relaxed and respectable tone. This plays a key part in the reader’s view of each and every reverend, as he or she only knows of them according to girls’ portrayal of them. Throughout the novel, Kingsolver successfully depicts the two sides of the Christian faith, the successful way of preaching to those who want to not hear it, and the dire value of whose hands religious fervor is placed in.

Operates Cited

Kingsolver, Barbara. The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel. New York : HarperPerennial, 1999, c1998. Print.

Purcell, William F. “The Gospel According to Barbara Kingsolver: Brother Fowles and St. Francis of Assisi in The Poisonwood Bible – PhilPapers.” The Gospel According to Barbara Kingsolver: Brother Fowles and St. Francis of Assisi in The Poisonwood Bible – PhilPapers. Gale, Cengage Finding out, 2009. Net. 05 Sept. 2016.

“Read the Bible. A Free of charge Bible on Your Phone, Tablet, and Laptop.” Study the Bible. A Free of charge Bible on Your Telephone, Tablet, and Computer. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Sept. 2016.