Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible

In Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, Leah Price’s psychological and moral traits are shaped by her cultural, physical, and geographical surroundings. In the beginning, Leah is shaped by her father’s religious nature, the materialistic American society, and her native
Bethlehem, Georgia. Over the course of the novel, Leah changes from a religious and materialistic child that only seeks her father’s approval to a more independent yet unreligious person that values the qualities in other people more than approval from her father. Without the influences on her development as a character that happen before the novel takes place, the significance of the experiences and influences of her development in the Congo would be less apparent and
Just as American materialism as a whole shaped Leah, her immediate environment of
Bethlehem, Georgia helped shaped her as well. From the convenience of the Piggly Wiggly, where all of the household day-to-day necessities were purchased, to her advanced status she shared with her twin Adah in school, all of these immediate situations can be considered her environment. She, as well as all of her sisters and her mother and father, view the grocery store the Piggly Wiggly as a fixture in their town where they can go buy whatever they need whenever they need it, within operating hours. None of the Prices ever stop to consider the people that work endlessly to keep the Piggly Wiggly open, stocked, and convenient for the public. Her father’s congregation is another example of Leah’s environment prior to the novel that shapes her into the complacent and naive child she is as she enters the novel, and the Congo. In her hometown of Bethlehem, Georgia, she is raised in the Southern Baptist church her
Both the Congo and the fictional family of the Prices underwent upheaval. As the Prices’ family structure completely dissolved, the individual lives of each of the family members changed forever and the characters developed in major ways. While every character went through their own triumphs and tribulations that changed their dynamics and interactions with the rest of the characters, Leah Price changed perhaps the most drastically. During her time with her family in
Kilanga, Congo, the differences in cultural, physical, and geographical surroundings shape Leah into an independent yet unreligious character. However, the significance of her metamorphosis relies on the development of her character in the time set before the novel begins. Her father’s
Cook 5 religiousness, the materialism of American society, and her local environment of Bethlehem,
Georgia all shaped Leah into a dependent, naive, and self-berating child whose only desire was recognition from her father. Her father’s enforcement of his Southern Baptist religion