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Faith Hensley
Katie Endicott
AP Literature 1st Period
30 November 2015
The Poisonwood Bible Novel Project: Psychoanalyzing Leah Price
In The Poisonwood Bible, author Barbara Kingsolver narrates the story of a family of
Georgia Baptists who, at the order of familial patriarch Nathan, embark as missionaries to Africa
in hopes of converting primitive Congolese natives to the ways of Christianity. Subjecting
themselves to this move only out of forced succumbence to their father -or husband'sunshakable will, the Price girls sacrifice nearly everything which they possess in order to migrate
to this third world nation. Throughout the novel's thirty year span, The Poisonwood Bible tells
the unique coming of age story of each of the Price daughters: Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth
May. The second eldest daughter, Leah Price, is introduced as a fervent preacher's daughter who
regards her father as the epitome of goodness and strives passionately to be deemed worthy of
redemption in not only his judgmental eyes but also in the eyes of God; however, as the novel
progresses, Leah matures, accepting that her father is not the righteous man she grew up
worshipping and that she, herself, is not the obedient, privileged girl she grew up believing
herself to be.
Immediately, Leah is characterized as the sister who is most supportive of their father’s
overwhelming desire to provide salvation to the people of the Congo. In Leah’s eyes, Nathan is
a savior in his own right, leading the damned to baptism through Jesus Christ. Leah exhibits a
hero worship toward her father, and while “hero worship (among adolescents) seems like an
innocuous act…there is definitely a dark side [as] …hero worship [can cause] people to lose
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their own identity,” ("Is It Safe to Worship Athletes?"). Leah is completely absorbed by her
desire to satisfy her father’s demands, and she believes that the only way to be good and
acceptable is to gain his approval. For example, when helping her father plant seeds in order to
grow a vegetable garden near their hut, Nathan asks her why God provides them with seeds as
opposed to simply giving them prepared food. After pondering his question and realizing she is
unable to answer it, Leah admits she does not know. He then explains to her that God helps only
those who are willing to help themselves. Rather than feel grateful to have gained this insightful
knowledge, Leah feels agitated and disappointed, claiming she knew this all along. “If only I
could bring forth all that I knew quick enough to suit Father,” she dismays (Kingsolver 41-43).
She is motivated not by a desire for knowledge or experience, but for her father’s approval,
which greatly restricts her ability to mature as a unique individual.
Furthermore, Leah's father serves as her connection to religion. Leah's fierce belief in
God comes not from an intrinsic motivation to have faith in a greater being but from a blind,
automatic acceptance of her father's opinion as -despite her impressive intelligence- Leah never
questions the authenticity of the words her father preaches. This thoughtless routine response
seems perfectly satisfactory until she begins to take genuine interest in African culture. It is
through her understanding of her father's sermon translator, Anatole's purpose that she begins to
discover the value in self-autonomy. Although Anatole does not believe in Jesus himself, he still
aids Nathan in conveying his message to the Congolese. When Leah asks him why he is so
helpful toward her father when he does not personally identify as Christian, Anatole explains to
her that the Congolese deserve to be able to choose what they wish to believe; therefore, he
translates the Gospel to his kin, providing them with the information they need to make wise
choices for themselves. “What I believe in does not matter,” insists Anatole, “I am a
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teacher…People need to know what they are choosing.” (Kingsolver 323-324) It is in this scene
that Leah begins to show how much Africa is changing her. Like the Congolese, many choices,
which should have been her own, have been made by an authoritative, controlling white man,
and like the Congolese, she determines that she, too, deserves the chance to make her own
educated decisions concerning personal matters.
In light of this epiphany, Leah pulls away from her father, turning instead to Anatole's
wise, nonjudgmental guidance. She replaces the time she formerly spent studying Scripture with
practicing her shooting skills with the bow and arrows Anatole gave her. Leah even goes as far
as to challenge the limitations placed on women by men -both white and black- by petitioning
that she aid in shooting the live game during the community hunt. Her father is absolutely livid
over this unconventional idea, forbidding her to break custom in order to participate in the hunt
and claiming that, "God has ordained that [she] honor [her] father and submit [herself] to the
rules of His house," (Kingsolver 386) Conveniently, Nathan leaves out the second half of this
verse, "honor they father and thy mother," ("Exodus.") leaving the decision completely up to his
discretion alone. Rather than buying into this sense of helplessness, bowing down to her father's
command, and begging for his forgiveness and approval, Leah stands her ground, insisting she
will follow through on her promise to hunt alongside the Congolese men -even in spite of his
objections. This brave, outright disobedience shocks her sisters and mother, overwhelming each
of them with varying amounts of disbelief, contemptuousness, fear, and awe for Leah is the first
among them to fight back against Nathan's almighty reign. Once Nathan comes to realize that
neither shaming nor threatening nor physically punishing Leah breaks her spirit, he resolves to
treat her with uncaring indifference. Rachel records that he, "washed his hands of her moral
education...[even stating that he believed Leah to be] a shameful and inadequate vessel for God's
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will [which] ...was why he would no longer even stoop to punishing her," (Kingsolver 406).
Simply by choosing her own role in society, Leah severs her relationship with her father and
thereby his God.
From henceforth, Leah no longer craves pleasing God and, consequently, no longer
bothers studying His Word, instead, devoting her time and energy to Anatole and the Congo.
Although Leah gives off many clues that this decision is bound to come, it is only after she,
Adah, Rachel, and Orleanna flee Kalinga that she fully dedicates her life to Anatole and Africa.
Too malaria-stricken to travel, she stays behind with Anatole after her sisters and mother find
their own places of refuge. It is in this vulnerable, disease-ridden state that she allows herself to
accept that she has fallen in love with Anatole. She, “[begs] him closer, inch by inch [until the]
…bitterness of quinine [malaria pills] and sweetness of kissing are two tastes perfectly linked on
[her] soft palate,” (Kingsolver 452). She records that, “love changes everything,” and that unlike
the unrequited love she had her for her father, her love for Anatole is powerful, powerful enough
to “[deliver her] not out of [her] life but through it,” (Kingsolver 453).
In choosing Anatole, Leah also chooses his cause: fighting for independence in the
Congo. As Leah has already been doubting the morality of Western influence in the Congo, this
mindset is easy for her to adopt. While Anatole is imprisoned in Leopoldville and Leah is left
alone, seeking sanctuary with nuns in a missionary building, she finds herself fostering
resentment for not the Congolese, but the Westerners. “Who is the enemy?!” Leah asks another
nun, “Which side are you trying not to hate, white men or Africa? …I’d fight along the Simbas
[Congolese rebels] if they’d let me,” (Kingsolver 476). No more will Leah submit herself to the
status quo. She wields the stubbornness which she inherited from her father to her advantage,
refusing to constrain herself to any limitations –even gender or racial.
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Likewise, through her union with Anatole and decision to remain in Africa, Leah adopts a
new outlook on religion. She identifies herself as a pantheist, someone who believes, “that the
natural universe is divine, the proper object of reverence,” ("An Introduction to Pantheism.").
Having given up her faith in God, Leah reflects back upon the teachings of Brother Fowles, a
man who encouraged the Price girls to “attend to Creation,” (Kingsolver 479). Unlike her father,
Brother Fowles did not believe that the Congolese required formulaic, Western scripture
readings in order to experience the ‘right’ kind of spirituality; he believed that every Congolese
action linked them to the land, fostering communion with nature and –in Fowle’s point of viewwith God. It is in this way, through the trees, vines, and flowers of the Congo, that Leah finds
stability, something solid and ever-present to believe in –something she could never maintain
through her father’s irrelevant, methodic sermons.
So, it is through this exchange of one man and cause for another man and cause that Leah
finally pieces together her own identity. She becomes a dutiful wife, loving mother, relentless
social justice advocate, and resourceful resident of Africa. Having felt firsthand the intense
violation of Africa that was European colonization, Leah resolves that she must begin, “each day
on [her] knees, asking to be converted,” (Kingsolver 594). As a grown woman, one who has
seen both extreme cruelty and extreme kindness, she now prays not to any God but to her land,
“Forgive me, Africa, according to the multitude of thy mercies,” (Kingsolver 594). Alas, Leah
has taken on a social responsibility to erase some of the marks of devastation other whites have
made on Africa by cleansing her homeland daily with her love. She “looks at [her] four boys,
who are the colors of silt, loam, dust, and clay, an infinite palette for children of their own,
and…[understands] that time erases whiteness altogether,” (Kingsolver 595). Leah having
learned from the mistakes of her brethren, allows her inbred hero complex to replace the hero
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worship of her childhood. Just as she always led her sisters, “the forward twin leading hungrily,”
(Kingsolver 6), she now leads the Congo from a place of despair and hardship to a bright new
beginning of hope, freedom, and independence.
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Works Cited
Beardmore, Matt. "Is It Safe to Worship Athletes?" Psychology Today. Psychology
Today, 12 Oct. 2013. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.
"Exodus." EXODUS CHAPTER 20 KJV. King James Bible Online. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.
Garrett, Jan. "An Introduction to Pantheism." An Introduction to Pantheism. Western Kentucky
University, 3 July 1997. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.
Kingsolver, Barbara. The Poisonwood Bible. Suffolk: Faber and Faber, 2007. 616. Print.