Comparing Medea And The Poisonwood Bible

Medea Final Essay

In novels and play writes such as Barbara Kingsolver’s, The Poisonwood Bible and Euripides, Medea, the theme Role of women arises: women in many societies are subjugated and displayed as the inferior gender, when they are truly the strongest; they carry all the pain and suffering of society, the wars and the deaths; thus they are the pedestal that keeps everyone up. In order to reveal theme Kingsolver and Euripides make use of literary devices such as symbolism, imagery and diction. Using all three literary devices Kingsolver reveals that women such as Orleana believe that they are just rag dolls that are pulled, pushed and just there, even so realize how strong they really are; that if it was not for them their children would not be able to live. Medea on the other hand represents all the pains and struggles of women and is attempting to inform all women that they have the power and must stand up for themselves.
Due to her husband’s ignorance she is kept in the shadows and behind the current: “I washed up there on the riptide of my husband’s confidence and the undertow of my children’s needs” (Kingsolver, page 8). The symbolism and imagery of a “riptide”, which is a strong inescapable force, shows Orleana’s helplessness. She has no “life of her own”, as she is pulled by the “undertow” of her “children’s needs”. But later on as she is still viewing herself as helpless, she is brought to a point where she realizes she has to stand up for herself and her daughters. The death of her daughter Ruth May awakened Orleana from her helpless slumber: “no wonder they hardly seemed to love me half the time – I couldn’t step in front of my husband to shelter them from his scorching light. They were expected to look straight at him and go blind”. Using diction Kingsolver reveals Orleana’s revelation that she must step up and stand for what’s