The Poisonwood Bible Stylistic Analysis

In the novel, The Poisonwood Bible, Kingsolver uses both short and long sentences to show Rachel’s aging in the story and also uses run on sentences to show how scattered Rachel’s thoughts are. At the start of the story, Rachel is only fifteen years old and only uses basic sentences such as “Then he just stopped, just froze perfectly still” (27). Her limited vocabulary and poor grammar shows that she is young and has not been very well educated. As Rachel grows, as does her word choice and sentence structure. When Rachel is about fifty, she begins to use more complex sentences. One example is “I have a little sign in every room telling guests they are expected to complain at the office between the hour of nine and eleven daily” (511). This