The Poisonwood Bible: Leah Price

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Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible follows the Price family after their decision to go to the Congo as missionaries. The story is told through the eyes of the mother, Orleanna, and her four daughters- Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May. Kingsolver uses this novel to illustrate the effects of colonialism. Colonialism is a system where one country dominates over another. The country in power does not always make decisions that keep in mind the interests of the country it is in control of. The Poisonwood Bible explores more than one kind of colonialism. The head of the family, Nathan Price, practices a form of colonialism over his family. He controls the women and tries to determine every aspect of their being. However, like the Congo, the women were able to break free in their individual ways and fight for their existence. One of two living sisters who remained in Zaire after its independence, Leah Price underwent an incredible transformation from the daughter of a Georgia preacher to a mother of four. For this transformation, she had to eliminate her old way of thinking, so she could be open to new ways.

Before its independence, Zaire was known as the Congo. Belgium ruled the Congo, and America helped to promote a sense of dominion over it. Many white people from these two countries felt a responsibility to make the Congolese nation much like theirs and to make the Congolese citizens think the same way they did. Many missionaries took it upon themselves to educate the Congolese citizens about God and about the ways of the West. The flow of missionaries into the Congo slowed as political unrest began to unfold. A few missionaries, ignoring the warnings given to them, still went into the Congo in the hope of turning souls to God. Nathan Price fit this description. A war veteran and a Southern Baptist preacher, he gave himself the authority to take dominion over anything he wanted to, believing that the American government, as well as God, supported him. Nathan brought his family into the Congo in 15, not knowing that this would spark a change of events that would change his family forever.

Leah Price does not seem to have a deep, personal relationship with her mother. Orleanna Price is certain that Leah knows how to take care of herself. Leah is the stronger of a set of twins, and a tomboy on top of that. During an ant attack, saving Leah does not once cross Orleanna's mind. She recognizes Leah's strength, although this is not enough to bring them closer together. Despite the absence of intimacy in their relationship, Leah and her sisters combine forces with Orleanna to protect each other from Nathan and his temper. On more than one occasion, the girls have accepted punishment for things Orleanna has done, and vice versa.

Leah's relationship with her father differs greatly from the one she has with her mother. She adores Nathan, and does everything she can to be accepted in his eyes. Nathan, whose task in life allows no room to love and nurture his children, is blind to her efforts. Kingsolver sums up Leah's relationship to Nathan here, describing Leah as saying,

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"I was thrilled by the mere fact of his speaking to me in this gentle, somewhat personal way. He didn't look at me, of course, for he had so much on his mind, as ever. We'd worked so hard for God's favor, yet it seemed God was still waiting for something extra, and it was up to my father to figure out what." (77)

Throughout the novel, Leah stands by Nathan, following him around and devoting her attention to him, even though her need for acceptance is never acknowledged or fulfilled. His relationship to God is similar to Leah's relationship to him. They are both waiting for approval, and in both places, the approval never comes. When Nathan dies, she is the only one of her sisters who feels anything other than satisfaction. It takes Ruth May dying to begin opening Leah's eyes so she sees what kind of man her father really is. Although it had crossed her mind, she never fully realized until then that her father was capable of being wrong- both in his way of thinking and in the way he treated his family. This realization marks a huge turning point in Leah's life, where instead of admiration and awe, Leah's feelings turn into anger towards Nathan.

The years Leah spent in Kilanga changed her pre-conceived notions on race and race relations. Coming from Bethlehem, Georgia, she, like the other members of her family, at first believed all Africans to be heathen savages. Living in Kilanga exposed Leah to a new way of thinking and a new way of living. Villagers worked together, helping each other survive on a daily basis. Even when the Price family ran low on food, a neighbor gave them some of her hens and some of her eggs. Leah found the villagers to have an appreciation for nature she had never seen before. In a sense, they worshipped Mother Nature. They designated gods for different aspects of nature as a way to recognize the importance of nature in their lives. Leah came to think in the same way the villagers did, and eventually learned the native language. She shared their love of nature and their spirit of sharing, unity, and equality. She fell in love with Anatole, a black man who shared her views on equality and human rights. By this time, racial tension between White colonialists and Black citizens was higher than usual, due to the actions of the Belgian and American governments. Exasperated that people refused to look beyond her white skin, Leah longed to live in a world with no color. During the latter part of the novel, she became ridden with guilt over the color of her skin, and never was able to forgive herself for the color of her skin. In her mind, being White aligned her with Belgium and America, and with their actions. She becomes part of the problem, and never resolves the problem.

Skin color is not the only thing that Leah feels guilty about. Her whole life involves her dealing with different sources of guilt. Her twin sister, Adah, suffers from hemiplegia, a condition where one half of the brain shrivels slightly smaller than the other. In addition to this, Leah was breastfed through much of her infancy, whereas Adah was given milk formula. Leah therefore got all the nutrients that come from breast feeding and grew up a physically stirring girl. Adah spent much of her life deformed and did not speak very often. Leah blames herself for Adah's state of being and never quite forgives herself for this.

The issue of religion also served as a source of guilt for Leah. During the earlier part of her life, Leah behaved exactly how she thought her father would want her to behave. She absorbed everything he told her to absorb, including his idea of religion. Nathan Price taught Leah that there was only one God, He had one way of getting things done, and that everything happened for a greater good. The events she saw happening around her made her re-evaluate God and religion. She became angry at God, and abandoned religion for a little while. However, things turned sour. Anatole was arrested. Leah found that she needed somebody to turn to, so she turned to God. She turned to a much different God than the one she used to turn to.

"I found I… couldn't picture God at all. He just ended up looking like my father. I tried to imagine Jesus, then, in the body of Brother Fowles…Attend to creation, was his advice." (4)

The fundamental difference between Leah's God and Nathan's God is that Nathan's God is everywhere, watching and ready to reprimand. Leah's God, however, created everything and lives in everything he created; ready to come to the rescue whenever He is needed. When Leah gave up her father's way of thinking, she stopped believing in his God. Instead, she began looking around her at everything God created and realized how they all came together to provide the tools necessary to survive. This new outlook on religion gives Leah a new sense of peace, as she realizes that she has not been abandoned by God.

The time Leah Price spent in the Congo radically changed her. Everything she believed in was questioned and discarded for a new way of thinking that was able to better fit the new lifestyle she now lived. Kingsolver develops this complex character by following her from the naïve teenager she was to the mother of four, married to an African man and still living in Africa. In order to develop so much, Leah evaluated her relationship to her father and her views on religion. In addition to these two, her relationship to the women in her family helps shape the woman she becomes.

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