Poisonwood Bible Notes

Michael Hall

Notes: Poisonwood Bible

Book 1 Genesis

            The first book starts with Orleana Price reflecting back on a memory she has from her extensive time that her and her family spent in Africa. In 1959 the Price family left to go on a one year missionary trip to the Congo. Nathan price, the father, is a minister who decided to take his wife, Orleana, and four daughters: Rachel, Ruth May, Leach, and Adah, on a mission to spread Christianity to the indigenous people of the Congo. They move to village of Kilanga where they are welcome with a big feast of goat stew. Right of the start the family are faced with many new people and experiences. Fist they family have to adjust to their new house and environment, it is nothing like the home they left. Second they have to adjust to the people in the village. At the beginning, the girls are afraid to go outside and adventure, instead they just observe the people outside. At the same time the villagers are curious about the Price family. Most of the family has a hard time adjusting to their new situation, Orleana doesn’t have the appliances that made many tasks at home very easy, and Nathan is having a hard time getting people to attend his sermons and get baptized. In order to persuade people to go to his sermons he sets up an Easter church service and picnic where they made and served fried chicken for the villagers. The picnic turned out to be a big success, but the family still had a hard time adjusting and even more when their housekeeper Mama Tataba quite due to here and Nathan arguing.

Book 2 The Revelation
             This part of the story starts with Orleanna reflecting on her time in Kikongo after they lost their house keeper. She tells how her day was full of supplying the family with their basic needs. As she worked to keep the family feed, Nathan began to become obsessed with his goal of converting the native people to Christianity. As the months went on they started to learn about the people, culture, and land of the Congo. Leah took rapidly to the native land and culture. Soon the family starts to to more adjusted with the area. They girls start to have lessons with their mom and start to make friends with the village kids. Ruth May is the first to start playing with the other kids teaching them, "mother may?” While the others play, Leah begins to learn practical survival skills from Pascal, a young boy. As her father travels and spreads his beliefs Leah becomes jealous and mad that she doesn't get to travel like him. Later Ruth May breaks her arm from falling from a tree and they take her to Stankeyville for treatment. While there Nathan talks with a doctor about the effects of US and european influence in the country. Not long after the local school teacher, Anatole, cone to the house and tells then that the chief of the village is getting mad at how many people are going to Nathan's services. His services become more popular after Adah is walking and attacked by a lion but manages to escape. Most of the people say that Jesus that saved her.  At the start of the new year the price family get a surprise visit from the last missionaries, the Underdowns, they warn them that there is an election coming and that they needed to leave. Nathan says that they won’t leave until his "mission" is complete.

Book 3 The Judges
            This book starts with Orleanna reflecting on how her and Nathan meet and when Nathan was drafted in to army in WWII where he received a traumatic head wound. In 1960 Orleanna and Ruth May are both very sick and the other girls have to take care of the family and realize hard hard their mother works. To make things even more difficult the family now doesn’t have any support for the missionary program anymore. Now they have to survive with the few supplies they have. As time goes on they start to recover and get used to the change, but Orrleanna begins to question Nathan. She starts to think that her and the girls need to get out of Africa. One day the last missionary, Fowles, comes to town. Nathan doesn't like him because they differ on my beliefs.  The chief of the town, Tata Ndu, starts to come to the Price family house for often and the family is confused until they hear that he is looking for another wife, Rachel. To keep her from marrying him, they decide to pretend to be engaged to Axelroot, an American pilot. One night the village gets infested with ants and everyone fears for their lives.

Book 4 Bel and the Serpent
            To start this book Orleanna talks about the overthrow and coup of the Congo government while they lived there. After the invasion the ants, the villagers came back and found that most of the food was eaten and they had little water caused by the drought they were in. The village lost faith and called a vote on whether to keep Christianity where Nathan lost. Next they announces a great hunt, Leah asks the elders if she can join and I shut down, but with the help of most of the young they hold a vote an she is allowed. Even with the towns approve her and Nathan fight about it. At the hunt there is a debate about how killed an antelope, Leah or the chiefs son, which erupts in chaos and arguing. That night Nelson tells them that he is suspicious of some of the people. The girls set a trap to catch anyone who is trying to harm him. The next morning they find the footprints of Tata Kuvudundu and a green mamba snake that bites Ruth May and kills her. The woman and children from the village surround her body and pray. The children began calling out “Mother may I?”

Book 5 Exodus

            After Ruth Mays death Orleanna feels that her and the girls need to leave. That night they walked out of the village and head into the neighboring town of Bulungu. On the way Leah gets malaria and has to be carried, when they get there she stays with Anatole and decides to marry him and stay. For the others, Rachel and Axelroot fly to South Africa, where they live together until she marries an attaché to the French embassy. Orleanna and Adah take a truck to the capital and eventually fly back to the US. Adah studies medicine and visits her mother. As time goes on the all go on with different careers but still are haunted by the death of Ruth May. Nathan stills tries to baptize the people of the Congo. In the 80’s they all regrouped and see how each has changed, they talk about how Leah heard that Nathan died by villagers.

Book 6 Song of the Three Children

            The three girls have all grown through their time and now have different outlooks on life and Africa. Rachel regrets that she never had children and that made the decision to not go back to the US. She thinks that Africa can’t be changed, it is what it is. Leah thinks about how European nation have come and created so many of the problems in Africa and wishes to heal those wounds. She lives on an agricultural station trying to help the people. Adah works to help people all around the world by working to cure diseases, namely Ebola and AIDS. The three girls all grew to have different views of the world based of their shared experiences in the Congo.

Book 7 The Eyes in the Trees

            The girls are walking through are market where they are being watched over by the spirit of Ruth May. As they go Orleanna sees many symbols that remind her of her lost daughter, one being a small boy that she sees. Towards the end the spirit says that she forgives her mother and that she needs to forgive herself, there ending the story.