CHARACTERS

Major Characters

Nathan Price

The Baptist missionary who drags his family to the Congo in opposition to the mission boardÂ’s advice Nathan is a driven, self-centered man with misguided notions on GodÂ’s expectations. Although he seemed normal enough when he first married Orleanna, his injury in WW II seems to have marked him for life. Furthermore, he has an inflated idea of his own ability and knowledge. He has no regard for women or for their intelligence and no interest in truly understanding the people with whom he imagines himself to have a ministry. He makes no allowance for culture or traditions-or even for safety-in his attempt to create conversions. As the women of his family grow away from him, he becomes increasingly more narcissistic and is believed to be insane long before the incident of his own tragic death.

Orleanna Price

Wife to Nathan Price and mother of four daughters. Orleanna herself was raised by her father, having lost her mother as a very young child. Having little female influence beyond her aunt, she is vulnerable to persuasive skills of the young Nathan Price who seems to have seen her as his own personal mission. He marries her at the suggestion of OrleannaÂ’s aunt who had been providing him with Sunday dinner for several weeks after he had met Orleanna. She is one of the voices of the novel and is continuously driven to explain why she was powerless to intercept his influence or control of the girls. She is a static character in some ways, falling victim to guilt, which she does not really deserve. She introduces each book of the novel with accumulating explanations of how and why things happened as they did. OrleannaÂ’s address seems to be directed toward her daughters, especially Ruth May of whom she continuously begs forgiveness.

Rachel Price

The oldest of the Price children. She comes across as self centered and vain, but she is a survivor. She does not fight but takes advantage of whatever situation comes her way. She also craves approval even as she pretends not to care.

Leah Price

The first born of the twins and the first to truly understand the continent of Africa and its people. Leah is also the one who wants her fatherÂ’s approval and wants to believe in his mission, but is too honest with herself to see beyond the harm that outweighs any good he might be doing. Leah is open minded, compassionate and able to see beauty wherever she finds it. She falls in love with Anatole, the African schoolteacher and stays in the Congo after her mother leaves.

Adah Price

Adah is LeahÂ’s twin. A birth injury called hemiplegia affects one side of her brain so that she walks with a limp, has limited use of one side of her body, and performs certain tasks backwards. The defect becomes an art form, however, as she is able to instantly see palindromes in not only words but in complete sentences. She is also able to see concepts from a unique perspective and gain an understanding on things other people miss. She is self-conscious about her physical condition, however, and in spite of being intellectually gifted, sees herself as defective and is acutely sensitive to situations which could be interpreted as rejection, but which often have another, perfectly logical explanation. She is also a gifted poet and is particularly drawn to poetry by Emily Dickinson and other writers of short, ironic verses.

Ruth May Price

The youngest of the Price children. Ruth May understands a great deal more than her parents or sisters realize. As the youngest, she has the normal childish fears, which are exacerbated by the terrors of the jungle. However, she is also sweetly, childishly open minded and able to make friends with anyone. She is a static character, but because of her symbolic connection to the country itself, she is well developed. She is killed by a snake about three quarters of the way through the novel. Thus, she seems to be the audience for her motherÂ’s portion of the story and for her sisters as well after her death.

Anatole Ngemba

Anatole is the orphaned African schoolteacher who was rescued and educated by missionaries prior to the arrival of the Price family. He is a minor character in terms of his own development but of major importance in his perceptions of and relationship to Leah. He is not afraid to take a stand for what he believes is right, regardless of whether it means defending his own people or defending the missionary family.

The Congo

The Native American authors often focus their stories around relationships between people and land; but even lacking such awareness, a person could not read Poisonwood Bible without realizing that the Congo itself is one of the major "characters" of the book. In fact, one could even make the argument that the land is the silent protagonist. While I am stopping short of making such a case here, it is nonetheless apparent that each of the major characters must learn to define him or herself in relationship to this jungle that "eats itself and lives forever." The jungle is unchanging; when left to itself, even those areas deforested by human intrusion begin to live again and return to an earlier state. While damage is inflicted by invaders, in the end, the land wins the battle. The Africans call it "muntu" a word that encompasses all being, past, present and future, living, dead, and yet unborn.

Furthermore, the American Indian belief that humans take on different forms under varying circumstances coincides with a similar tradition among the jungle people. Thus there is not the least sense of incredulity over the idea of Ruth May becoming a green mamba snake, of taking on the wisdom and omniscient character of the forest and still retaining the essence of her own human spirit.

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