The Poisonwood Bible

Leah continues to yearn for her father’s attention and approval, but she excitedly learns Kikongo, primarily from her friend, Pascal. He is only eight or nine years old, and it strikes her as odd that his sisters have already undertaken more productive activities when he has time to play. Though she considers the Congo a paradise, she also acknowledges that her family is often out of place.

Now 15 years old, Leah grows more introspective. She realizes that circumstances are not always black and white, and the right solution is not always clear. Her father says to pray for the man with two wives, but she is not sure what she should pray, as it seems wrong for him to abandon either of them. Similarly, she considers the fact that Congolese girls of 15 are often married with children. They already have “married eyes”—the eyes of an adult which appear to have already seen most things. She wonders if childhood really exists for people who are not privileged white Americans.

Ruth May witnesses the groups of boy soldiers with red hats, the Jeune Mou-Pro. Her mother tells her to run into the house whenever she sees them, but she climbs trees instead so she can watch them. One day, she falls out of the tree and breaks her arm. A few days later, Mr. Axelroot sobers up enough to fly them to the city to have her seen by a doctor. Ruth May notices diamonds in the bag of food that he carries, but she cannot tell anyone that secret because Mr. Axelroot said that if she did, God would make her mother get sick and die.

The doctor puts Ruth May in a cast, but he angers the reverend by arguing that the rebels have cause to be unhappy with whites. Reverend Price insists that “American aid will be the Congo’s salvation” (121). The doctor persists, asking exactly what “civilization” the Belgians brought to the Congo. The reverend replies “roads and railways,” and the doctor points out that they did not take either of those methods of transportation to arrive in Stanleyville:

I do not like to contradict, but in seventy-five years the only roads the Belgians ever built are the ones they use to haul out diamonds and rubber. Between you and me, Reverend, I do not think the people here are looking for your kind of salvation. I think they are looking for Patrice Lumumba, the new soul of Africa (122).

Rachel is fascinated when Anatole, the 24-year-old school teacher, comes to dinner. She considers what she knows of him—that he worked in a rubber plantation and a diamond mine—and realizes that the movies where actresses wear diamonds seem wildly out of place with the people who actually dig the diamonds out of the earth. This thought discomfits her, so she chooses to think no more on the subject.

Anatole conveys a message from Tata Ndu; the chief feels that the church is pulling too many people away from their moral duties to their local gods. The reverend is infuriated by the allegation that his religion is “corrupting” the local people. The family are shocked to see that Anatole does not back down from the reverend’s anger but calmly explains the point of view of the chief. The reverend declares the conversation over, and Anatole leaves. When Mrs. Price comments on the conversation, the reverend grabs her arm and breaks the plate she had treasured, accusing her of liking the plate too much and using the plate to “show off,” trying to attract Anatole’s attention.

Though Adah’s disability prevents her from walking quickly, she has learned that she can walk substantial distances and explore the surroundings of Kilanga without her family’s notice. One day, she notices Anatole meeting and speaking with the Jeune Mou-Pro. On her way home, a lion stalks her. However, she makes it safely back to the family’s house and lays in a hammock.

The chief, Tata Ndu, arrives to inform the Price family that Adah has been killed by a lion, as they have seen her tracks, a lion’s tracks, and evidence of a kill in the form of blood. Tata Ndu appears proud, considering this to be proof the local gods do not appreciate the presence of the Price family. Reverend Price calmly suggests that they pray. Adah rises from the hammock and goes to show herself. Tata Ndu, disappointed he’s been proven wrong, leaves with only a mbote (goodbye).

Anatole sends his prized pupil, a 12-year-old boy named Lekuyu, or “Nelson,” to help around the house in exchange for eggs to sell at the market and permission to sleep in the chicken house. Leah is grateful to Anatole for sending them Nelson. Leah realizes that Nelson, despite his uncommonly high intelligence, is trapped by his circumstances the way that women are. As a Congolese native, the Belgians will not allow for him to go to college as they want to prevent “independent thought.”

After Ruth May’s broken arm and Adah’s brush with the lion, Orleanna is keen to keep her children in the house as much as possible. Despite her best efforts to protect her children, Leah contracts malaria due to underestimating the proper dosage of quinine for her size and activity level. Leah resents being kept inside, especially since it prevents her from continuing to spy on Mr. Axelroot since the last time she and Adah saw him, he answered his radio and made a threatening statement which drew their curiosity.

Church becomes more popular after the Price’s credit Adah’s survival to Jesus. Leah resents that her father put his arm around Adah in public, proud to show her off as proof of his religion’s correctness. Orleanna insists the older three girls begin embroidery projects for their hope chests, making items for their future marriages. Rachel takes to them quickly, but Leah has a more difficult time and wonders whether she will ever actually marry since boys were never interested in her in Georgia, where she had skipped two grades. While she believes her father must be right that women are supposed to marry and that they are not supposed to go to college, she determines that college would help her to learn useful things to teach others and possibly attract a husband.

Nelson teaches Ruth May about the local beliefs in gods and superstitions. One is that snakes must be called “strings” after dark so that they do not hear their names and come when called. Superstitions become problematic when Leah adopts a baby owl as a pet. The locals are infuriated by this since owls are believed to eat souls, and people have died from disease lately. They are concerned that the baby owl will eat baby souls. Reverend Price says that this is a baseless superstition. Leah proudly brings her owl back in, saying that her father stuck up for her. In response, he beats her, leaving a giant handprint bruise on her neck and forcing her to write The Verse for the sin of pride. Leah leaves the house after doing her verses, but her father says that everyone should go to sleep instead of giving her attention or else they will get the same punishment. Even so, the women wait up for Leah and are excited when she returns unharmed.

The Underdowns arrive to warn the Price family that the Congo is going to be an independent country in a few short months. The political situation has become unstable, so many whites—including the Underdowns—are fleeing the country. Orleanna has an uncharacteristic outburst of emotion, upset that her family was allowed to come to a dangerous environment in the first place. The Underdowns point out that the Price family was not sanctioned by the Mission League, and that their stipend was given as a kind gesture—a kind gesture that will stop. Orleanna is shocked by this information and yells that she and her family had not relocated to “this moldy corner of hell” for a mere fifty dollars per month (164).

Reverend Price insists that there is no way that a country where the people are uneducated and not connected through reliable transportation or communication would be able to become a functioning, independent country. Orleanna wants to leave, taking her daughters with her, but Reverend Price pointedly dares her to say so aloud. He then insists that they will stay through their contract and wait for their relief to come in June; they’ll only leave after helping the new family settle in. The Underdowns explain that relief is not coming for years if ever, but Reverend Price is unperturbed, claiming that he has “worked some miracles” without any help (168). He insists that Christian charity will come from America and declares that the family will wait for whatever relief God chooses to send. Rachel’s hopes for going home are dashed as she recognizes, “Father would sooner watch us all perish one by one than listen to anybody but himself” (169).

Adah considers that she would like to be a doctor-poet if she can survive to adulthood and reminisces on the day that she became an atheist after questioning the morality of a system which assigns access to heaven based on proximity to a preacher. Adah also explains that the local gods determine where one is supposed to wash, bathe, drink, and defecate. Drinking should happen up-river of the bathing and washing, and defecation is meant to take place far away from the river. She acknowledges that the Price family did not understand this system or the sound hygienic reasoning behind it. Nelson blames the recent rains, which have led to the diarrheic disease which has been killing children left and right, on the Price family’s offenses against the local gods.

Anatole explains the voting process for the new, independent government of the Congo to the villagers. Adah considers the reasons behind the way the Congo was described in ridiculous newspaper article the Underdowns brought. Ultimately, she reasons, the purpose of the article is to convince Americans that the Congolese are cannibal barbarians, too ignorant to know better, and that Krushchev has been misleading them in order to manipulate them into hating the innocent Americans and Belgians. Adah scoffs at the idea that the Congolese need any help in hating the Americans who force them to work in rubber plantations and diamond mines, serving the whites in large houses while they starve. She also muses on the way that Kikongo words may have multiple meanings and that their untrained ears “will never understand the difference” (175).

Reverend Price is irritated that, in lieu of the usual necessities, the Underdowns have sent a letter instructing the Price family to prepare to leave for Léopoldville by a special Mission plane on June 28. The Underdowns also report making arrangements for the Price family to accompany them to Belgium in the week following their arrival. Despite Orleanna’s attempts to convince him of the danger he is willfully placing his family in, the reverend remains firm in his decision to remain in Kilanga.

Reverend Price flies to Stanleyville to get quinine pills and learn about the goings on of the new government of the Republic of Congo. He reports back that Patrice Lumumba has been elected Prime Minister, but that they have difficulties in establishing a proper government because all the people in parliament still favor their own tribes and chiefs. Rachel compares this to student-council elections and is otherwise occupied with thinking about returning back to America, where people’s concerns are to do with sockhops and drinking Coke: “All I want is to go home, and start scrubbing the deep-seated impurities of the Congo out of my skin” (178).

Ruth May explains that her father and Leah have gone onto the chartered plane sent by the Mission to fetch the Price family. They did not bring anything with them as they intend to come back because their father refuses to leave as instructed. Rachel had thrown a fit at not being allowed on the plane with her things. Orleanna retreats to her bed. Ruth May soon joins her.

Leah and Reverend Price meet with the Underdowns, who are shocked that the rest of the family has been left behind and that the reverend continues to insist that they will stay. Leah supports her father wholeheartedly, blindly believing that he knows best. She witnesses Prime Minister Lumumba take office and feels the force of his charisma. While Mrs. Underdown feels unnerved by Lumumba’s speech in which he highlights the crimes of colonialism and the disparity between the lives of the Congolese people and the whites who have come, Leah is struck by how accurate his account is.

Adah discovers a red feather by the latrine and considers it a celebration of the new Independence Day. She follows the trail of feathers, wondering whether the people whose daily lives seemed not to have changed at all even realize that it is Independence Day. She finds the source of the feathers—the body of Methuselah, the parrot. She muses that “After a lifetime caged away from flight and truth, comes freedom” in the form of death (186).