Essay #1

Exile

            "Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience.  It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home; its essential sadness can never be surmounted." When exile happens from either leaving a place, or in this case with the Poison Wood Bible, moving from the United States to the Congo to be a missionary things tend to change drastically. Immediately following the arrival in the Congo Nathan Price and his family noticed and experienced the change of the environment. There were some negative experiences as they arrived as well as some encouraging ones. Through all of this the author, Barbara Kingsolver, gives the reader a different perspective of the culture and atmosphere involved with the Congo natives and how distinct others like Americans are.

            Multiple negative experiences were results of the Price family entering into the Kilanga village. One challenge that occurred was that they were the only people from America in the village which meant that they needed a translator for everything. Also a little while later the chief came into the church and made the people take a vote on if Jesus was their God. Of course Nathan Price had never had to deal with this predicament in the U.S, because of freedom of religion so this was a lot different than he was used to.

            Although, the time spent in the village and the other places of the Congo wasn’t the best some good things did come as a result to it. For example, Rachel moved to Johannesburg, South Africa to live with Axelroot and enjoy the culture and society there. Adah eventually goes to college and becomes a doctor. After learning to walk without a limp she became very successful in her discoveries of Aids and the Ebola virus. Last, Orleanna becomes active in the Civil Rights movement. This gives insight to the reader that even when your life is filled with darkness the light can always be found.

            Throughout the book it not only contrasted between dark and light experiences, but it shed light on the fact that because of the exile the United States is extremely different in various ways. In Nathan’s first sermon he uses the phrase, “nakedness and darkness of the soul” to refer to the natives of Kilanga, but when Kingsolver describes Nathan she uses the phrase, “heart of darkness”. Through these phrases she gives the irony that Nathan thinks that the natives are in darkness when he is the one with the dark heart. Kingsolver adds onto this statement with the positive and negative experiences of the family while living in Kilanga.