Let me just start off by saying that I love all the narrators with all my heart. Each woman brings so much life to their story to The Poisonwood Bible, making each voice wholly compelling. While the individuals express a wide variety of viewpoints from innocent to cynical, there is much to appreciate from each character. That being said, I enjoy Ruth May's point of view the most. She inputs less than her sisters, but each entry proves to be absolutely hilarious. Her inexperience with idioms and slang contrasts her more knowledgeable sisters and mother. Even so, she notices events and traits that others cannot, like her keenness for identifying the friendly animals. Ruth May sees the world as black and white, as most children do, which guides the reader to believe that the events as she tells them are interpreted in the simplest, most straightforward way possible.
The main benefit of having nontraditional narrators is that it blockades the possibility of this book simply becoming yet another postcolonialist novel written by a white man, about a white man, solely for an audience of white men. Kingslover illustrates just how homogeneous the genre is, and continues far off the beaten path as far as narrators and the narrative. These new perspectives add a certain vitality to the story; hearing what it was like for the heroic, multi-talented missionaries' families who were brought along to support the mission. Most definitely not all families wished to go to Africa. The Prices are a special subset within this category; their missionary father and husband was far more adamant about staying in the Congo until everyone was saved or another missionary came to take his place. Nathan's one-track mind focused solely on achieving his own goal of converting everyone led him to neglect his family, adding another level of insight into how these men affected those around them, especially their immediate families. Kingslover solves the problem of this singular point of view by omitting it entirely. While I think this slightly detracts from the book as not everyone is represented, I understand her point of presenting solely the points of view not in so many other pieces. Being nontraditional is almost a tradition for Kngslover in this book, straying from the normal narrator and how Africa's people, customs, and environment are described.
This is a really great post. Your organization is solid and clear and your points are concise as well. Both of your paragraphs are strong and cover the two questions in the prompt well. Your discussion of Ruth May is good, however, more discussion of her and examples of her perspective from the book could benefit your post's strength. Your discussion of the impact of an all female narration is great and I love how you discuss how Nathan's character impacts the story despite his lack of narration. Overall, great job!
ReplyDeleteI like how straightforward and concise this post is. You did a great job of getting your point across. I agree with you in that Ruth May's narrations are enjoyable because of how funny they are. I do think that some examples of this comedy due to her inexperience could add a bit to this post. I like how you delved into family dynamics into the second half of this post, and it adds a lot to your discussion of nontraditional narrators. Great job!
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