Poisonwood Bible Captivity Examples
There are a multitude of ways in which a person can be enslaved. Sometimes, the captivity comes from a physical source, like a prison. Other times, it comes from within one’s own mind. Confinement can come, too, from other people, especially loved ones. Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Poisonwood Bible explores these types of captivity in conjunction with themes of love and betrayal.
Adah Price’s disability provides a strong example of physical captivity. She is trapped inside of a body which slants and drags, a result of her twin overcoming her in the womb. One of the clearest examples of how this confines her is during the flood of ants. Her body becomes like a prison cell, and her mother closes the door. “She studied me for a moment, weighing
my life. Then nodded, shifted the load in her arms, turned away” (Kingsolver, 306). This betrayal is nothing less than Orleanna measuring her love for one daughter against her love for the other.
Nathan Price is a very difficult character to like and connect with. His own captivity comes from within himself and his survivor’s guilt. Nathan’s underlying problems are revealed to the reader by Orleanna, “He came home with a crescent-shaped car on his temple, seriously weakened vision in his left eye, and a suspicion of his own cowardice from which he would never recover” (Kingsolver, 197). He was never able to forgive himself for surviving the war, and thus confined himself emotionally in his guilt. It is actually this guilt which leads to his family’s captivity throughout the novel.
Adah Price’s disability provides a strong example of physical captivity. She is trapped inside of a body which slants and drags, a result of her twin overcoming her in the womb. One of the clearest examples of how this confines her is during the flood of ants. Her body becomes like a prison cell, and her mother closes the door. “She studied me for a moment, weighing
my life. Then nodded, shifted the load in her arms, turned away” (Kingsolver, 306). This betrayal is nothing less than Orleanna measuring her love for one daughter against her love for the other.
Nathan Price is a very difficult character to like and connect with. His own captivity comes from within himself and his survivor’s guilt. Nathan’s underlying problems are revealed to the reader by Orleanna, “He came home with a crescent-shaped car on his temple, seriously weakened vision in his left eye, and a suspicion of his own cowardice from which he would never recover” (Kingsolver, 197). He was never able to forgive himself for surviving the war, and thus confined himself emotionally in his guilt. It is actually this guilt which leads to his family’s captivity throughout the novel.