Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible
Starting Over
In a battle between light and darkness, which would win? Where light is, darkness
cannot exist. In her novel The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver proves this point through
the eyes of three women who persevere through hardships. As the journals of Orleanna, Leah,
and Adah unfold, three separate meanings of "walk forward into the light" are found.
Kingsolver uses her excellent sense of diction to weave heavy-hearted words throughout
Orleanna's journals to express her sufferings following Ruth May's death. In her journals,
Orleanna states, "Maybe I'll even confess the truth, that I rode in with the horsemen and beheld
the apocalypse, but still I'll insist I was only a captive witness. What …show more content…
Phrases such as, "The
smiling bald man with the grandfather face has another face" (307) and "In the world, the
carrying capacity for humans is limited. History holds all things in the balance, including large
hopes and short lives" (452) while demonstrating great knowledge and insight, are also mirrors
of her morbid view of humans and nature. Unlike her mother or sister, Adah is born into her
shadow-world. Adah is born with a "slant" putting her, in her own eyes, beneath others. She
feels her condition holds her eternally bound in the shadows of Leah and the rest of her family.
For Adah, the darkness is clearly the imaginary gorge that separates her from the rest of
humanity. In her journals as well as everyday life, Adah separates herself by rarely speaking and
by doing tasks entirely backwards, further stretching the gap she envisions between herself and
the rest of the world. The light in Adah's world is the realization of her capability to love and be
loved. The tone in her journals gradually lightens as Adah's view changes her view of the world
from mortal enemy to friend. As she loses her "slant," she begins to realize that people in her
In a battle between light and darkness, which would win? Where light is, darkness
cannot exist. In her novel The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver proves this point through
the eyes of three women who persevere through hardships. As the journals of Orleanna, Leah,
and Adah unfold, three separate meanings of "walk forward into the light" are found.
Kingsolver uses her excellent sense of diction to weave heavy-hearted words throughout
Orleanna's journals to express her sufferings following Ruth May's death. In her journals,
Orleanna states, "Maybe I'll even confess the truth, that I rode in with the horsemen and beheld
the apocalypse, but still I'll insist I was only a captive witness. What …show more content…
Phrases such as, "The
smiling bald man with the grandfather face has another face" (307) and "In the world, the
carrying capacity for humans is limited. History holds all things in the balance, including large
hopes and short lives" (452) while demonstrating great knowledge and insight, are also mirrors
of her morbid view of humans and nature. Unlike her mother or sister, Adah is born into her
shadow-world. Adah is born with a "slant" putting her, in her own eyes, beneath others. She
feels her condition holds her eternally bound in the shadows of Leah and the rest of her family.
For Adah, the darkness is clearly the imaginary gorge that separates her from the rest of
humanity. In her journals as well as everyday life, Adah separates herself by rarely speaking and
by doing tasks entirely backwards, further stretching the gap she envisions between herself and
the rest of the world. The light in Adah's world is the realization of her capability to love and be
loved. The tone in her journals gradually lightens as Adah's view changes her view of the world
from mortal enemy to friend. As she loses her "slant," she begins to realize that people in her