Your essay should include at least 2 citations and should be garnished with an original title pertinent to the content of the essay. Give the full question and number below this title.
Let your ideas determine the structure of your paper, not the other way around.
Other topics by negotiation
Target Audience College Professor English 150 – college of your choice
MLA format
Length 2-3 pages only (No Bible length narratives: no Crime and Punishment . . .)
ESSAY TOPIC IDEAS
1. Discuss the elements of the narrative that are revealed by Orleanna but not commented on by the Price daughters. How do Orleanna’s revelations add to the character of each of the girls?
2. Leah genuinely cared for her father and struggled to please and impress him.
Characterize any reciprocal feelings he had for her.
3. Discuss the irony of African words and concepts as they are learned and presented by
Adah and Leah.
4. What elements of Christianity, if any, has Anatole knowingly or unknowingly adopted for himself.?
5. Discuss the similarity between Christianity and African paganism. (Refer to
Christianity as most followers think it should be lived/presented, not the version practiced by Nathan. The ideas of Tata Fowles will be helpful.)
6. Many Christian denominations believe that God has given direction for spreading the
Gospel to the rest of the world. If this mandate were taken as a given, what is wrong with
Nathan Price’s method of presentation?
7. Adah indicates that she had abandoned her faith long before arriving in the Congo.
How did this happen, and how does she maintain her own inward denial in spite of her father’s influence?
8. Children are known for being outspoken and literal in their observations. Discuss Ruth
May’s observations of the Congo. What does she see that others overlook? Why are her observations important? Other than bringing her an early death, how does the Congo affect her differently from her sisters?
9. Is Nathan Price insane or merely a domineering, self-centered man? To what extent is he responsible for the adult lives of his daughters?

10. The Congo and its people have a symbiotic relationship. Discuss the power of muntu over the lives of the natives as well as those of the intruders. What things could be controlled or altered by informed, human intervention? What aspects must simply be accepted and lived with?
11. Nathan and Rachel are alike in many significant ways. Explain how they are alike, and what part this similarity plays in furthering the message of the book.
12. The last sentence of the book is, "Walk forward into the light." What do you think the significance of this phrase is in relation to the main themes of the novel?
13. Forgiveness seems to be a central theme in the novel, but each narrator seems to have a different attitude toward the notion. Discuss forgiveness in relation to Orleanna, Leah,
Adah, Rachel, and Ruth May. What does each women feel she needs to forgive, or be forgiven for? How successful are they at giving or finding this forgiveness? Do you think that Kingsolver intended us to take away any message concerning forgiveness? If so, what is that message? Do you agree with it?
14. In what way does love act as a form of salvation in the lives of the Price women?
Does it figure any more prominently in the lives of some characters than in the lives of others?
15. At the end of the book, the woman in the market insists that there is no village of
Kilanga. What are we to make of this?
16.”In a world filled with American hubris, Poisonwood Bible is an antidote to the excesses of the American vision. It is set in Africa and revolves around one family, but it covers a wide canvas…” Discuss
17. Barbara Kingsolver said, in a New York Times interview in 1998, "I would like to write literature that invites readers to examine their society, their prejudices, their relationships, and the balances or imbalances of power contained within our culture. If this illuminates a life, that's wonderful. If it motivates progress towards a more human society even better."
Discuss the extent to which Kingsolver succeeds in addressing the above ideas, while making specific reference to elements of fiction including multiple narration, symbolism, imagery, figurative language, tone/mood, and overall style.
18. Write an essay analyzing rhetorical strategies Kingsolver employs and how effective they are. This might include syntax, diction, tone and style.

1.
Q: Discuss how the novel compares the relationships of husbands and wives to the colonizing power of the West.
2.
Q: Discuss the role of communism in the novel.
3.
Q: Discuss the ways in which death is portrayed in the novel.
4.
Q: Discuss the character of Anatole and what he represents in the novel.
5.
Q: How is America's role in the novel portrayed? Do you agree or disagree with this portrayal?
6.
Q: What is the significance of Reverend Price's first sermon to the Congolese people upon landing?
7.
Q: How might you best describe the relationship between Orleanna and Nathan
Price?
8 Q: Compare Brother Fowles's view of religion and that of Nathan Price.
9 Q: How is Adah's view of nature different from that of Brother Fowles?
9 Q: In your view, is it acceptable for oppressed persons to rise up and overthrow their rulers?
10 Analyse cultural conflicts of the Poisonwood Bible
1. What are the implications of the novel's title phrase, the poisonwood bible, particularly in connection with the main characters' lives and the novel's main themes? How important are the circumstances in which the phrase comes into being?
2. How does Kingsolver differentiate among the Price sisters, particularly in terms of their voices? What does each sister reveal about herself and the other three, their relationships, their mother and father, and their lives in Africa?
What is the effect of our learning about events and people through the sisters' eyes?
3. What is the significance of the Kikongo word nommo and its attendant concepts of being and naming? Are there Christian parallels to the constellation of meanings and beliefs attached to nommo? How do the Price daughters' Christian names and their acquired Kikongo names reflect theirpersonalities and behavior?
4 The sisters refer repeatedly to balance (and, by implication, imbalance). What kinds of balance--including historical, political, and social--emerge as important?
Are individual characters associated with specific kinds of balance or imbalance?
Do any of the sisters have a final say on the importance of balance?

5.
What do we learn about cultural, social, religious, and other differences between
Africa and America? To what degree do Orleanna and her daughters come to an understanding of those differences? Do you agree with what you take to be
Kingsolver's message concerning such differences?
6.
Why do you suppose that Reverend Nathan Price is not given a voice of his own?
Do we learn from his wife and daughters enough information to formulate an adequate explanation for his beliefs and behavior? Does such an explanation matter?
7.
What differences and similarities are there among Nathan Price's relationship with his family, Tata Ndu's relationship with his people, and the relationship of the
Belgian and American authorities with the Congo? Are the novel's political details--both imagined and historical--appropriate?
8.
How does Kingsolver present the double themes of captivity and freedom and of love and betrayal? What kinds of captivity and freedom does she explore? What kinds of love and betrayal? What are the causes and consequences of each kind of captivity, freedom, love, and betrayal?
9.
At Bikoki Station, in 1965, Leah reflects, "I still know what justice is." Does she?
What concept of justice does each member of the Price family and other characters (Anatole, for example) hold? Do you have a sense, by the novel's end, that any true justice has occurred?
10.
In Book Six, Adah proclaims, "This is the story I believe in . . ." What is that story? Do Rachel and Leah also have stories in which they believe? How would you characterize the philosophies of life at which Adah, Leah, and Rachel arrive?
What story do you believe in?
11. At the novel's end, the carved-animal woman in the African market is sure that
"There has never been any village on the road past Bulungu," that "There is no such village" as Kilanga. What do you make of this?
Generic sources (Internet searches)

Select a passage from Poisonwood Bible – approx. 1 page (Refer to reading journals).
Answer all questions (n/a is possible if it includes why )–
Questions for the Analysis of Prose Passages
1.
What is the narrator’s attitude toward the scene or event he is describing? How do you know? What reasons can be seen for the narrator’s response or attitude?
2.
Is there any bitterness, sarcasm, or irony? How do you know? What seems to be responsible for this tone?
3.
If the setting is emphasized, what contributes to the mood of the setting?
4.
If there are characters described in the selection, what is their relationship to each other?
5.
Is there a significant relationship between the setting and the characters? If so, what is it and how is it revealed?
6.
Examine the diction. Are there any word choices made that particularly enhance the mood or reveal the narrator’s attitude?
7.
Examine the verbs used in the passage. Are they static or dynamic? Is the passage in present, past, or future tense? Is that important? Why?
8.
Examine the syntax. Does it contribute to the total effect? How? Are there any obvious repetitions of syntax? Are there obvious contrasts?
9.
Examine the use of descriptive words or phrases. Are they elaborate, complex, or simple? How do they contribute to the total effect of the passage?
10.
Are there figures of speech used? Similes? Metaphors? Personification?
Allusions? Others? Their significance? What is their relationship to the total passage?
11.
Are there any sensory impressions evoked? If so, how?

12.
Is there any element of contrast or comparison used? What is the purpose and its effect?
13.
Is repetition of words, phrases, or images used? What is the purpose and its effect?
14.
If the passage is titled, what is the significance of its reflection on the passage as a whole?
15.
How is the passage organized? Are there repeated structural elements? How are the paragraphs related to each other? To the work as a whole?
16.
What is the theme of the passage? How do any of the other elements in the passage complement the theme or help reveal it?
17.
How would you characterize the writer’s style? How does the style complement the content of the passage?
18.
What is the author’s purpose? Does s/he achieve this purpose? What three or four elements most significantly contribute to the success or failure of the passage?
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Remember: No element should be considered in isolation: the importance of any element is how it works with others to enhance the writer’s purpose.
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Remember: When writing about a prose passage, be very specific with references to the passage to support your thesis.