Nathan Price: The Father, the Husband, and the Dictator

The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver: Reading Response 9 (Kind of a Spoiler, so small Spoiler Alert)

While I was reading The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver one character throughout the book captivated me. He is not exactly a main character, but he is important to EVERY character in some way. His name is Nathan Price and he is the father of Leah, Ruth-May, Rachel, and Adah and the husband of Orleanna Price. In the book he brings his family to Congo as part of a mission and starts trying to help a village 'find God' that is unwilling and content with their current beliefs. Through some characters he is the good guy in the book, to others he is the bad guy, and what I find most interesting is that some feel as though they cannot have an opinion because, I think, of fear.


I think that everyone in Nathan Price's family is scared of him. For example when he is being completely irrational and rude to Orleanna she simply agrees with him and basically runs away. No one ever challenges him, even when it is very apparent that he is wrong. I can see there fear, but what I wonder is why are they so scared of him? Even the people in the village who just met him, although they disagree with his sermons do not want to say anything because I think they are scared to anger him. This strange fear everybody has of him is part of why I think he is a very interesting character. I think that HE has so much respect or himself and HE thinks he has so much power, that other people go along with it. Also, I think no one really knows (especially in his family) that everybody feels the same way and would like to challenge him, so they think that if they do challenge him, everyone will side with Nathan Price and turn on them.

Also, on page 482, Leah tells Adah and Rachel that their father is dead. When normally you would expect great sadness, from the girls it felt like a great burden had been lifted from them. I think that their whole lives he has always been this great figure above them, and beacause of that fear, they have always had to do everything he says and agree with him. Nathan Prices relationship with his daughters is less father to daughter and more dictator to his people. So suddenly, I think that they feel free and like they can now just go on with their lives with no sense of 'will he be okay with me doing this?' The way people follow, yet maybe even despise Nathan Price makes me have so many questions about him. He is definitely arrogant, and very self centered, but on the other hand I don't think he is a selfish man because he gave up his life and church is Georgia to do what he thought was helping Africa.

I think that the villagers wanted to love him, and yet felt that the more and more he forced them to change their beliefs they had to hate him, which I guess is fair of them, but another thing that makes me unsure of whether he is a good or bad person is that he GENUINELY felt that making them become devout Christians would help them. I think that if he just wanted to do it because they were his beliefs so he wanted more people to follow him, that would make him a bad person, but the way he thinks he's helping really confuses me. I think he is trying to be a good person, but is very small-minded and needs to look beyond his own religion and understand the type of people  he is around in Atlanta are very different from those in the Congo. When it comes to his family, I do think that he is very selfish and believes that he can control all his daughters and wife, when that is not fair at all. I know that being the 1960's that was normal so maybe its not entirely his fault, but it still says something negative about the type of person he is.

In the book The Poisonwood Bible, the most interesting character, to me, is the Revered Nathan Price. I found the way other people treat him, with fear and hatred, interesting but also puzzling like so many other aspects of him. Things like how he treats his family, and the villagers, and even the type of person he is.

The Importance of the Peach Blossoms

          While we were reading the Drummer Boy of Shiloh, by Ray Bradbury, in class we brought up how much the peach tree and the peach blossoms kept on appearing. Even the first time I read the story they still stuck out to me. I knew that they meant something deeper than just being some peach blossoms and a peach tree. The author wouldn't have brought then back so many times if they hadn't been important. When I read the story again, I was looking out for them. I realized they appeared really, only in the most important parts of the book, and so I begin to analyze 'what they really meant' each time they were mentioned.
          The first time the peach blossoms are mentioned, is actually the first sentence of the story. The line is, "In the April night, more than once, blossoms fell from the orchard trees and lighted with rustling taps on the drumhead. At midnight a peach stone left miraculously on a branch trough winter, flicked by a bird fell swift and unseen..." In the next few sentences they introduce the main character, Joby who is the drummer boy in the Battle of Shiloh and they explain the fact that the men in the army are scared and waiting for battle. I think that the idea behind this mention of the peach blossoms, is how in such a harsh time where boys are forced to become men, awaiting possibly death, life can just continue for anything and anyone else. Like, the birds only a few feet away continue on ignorant to such hardships. I thought that this brought a light to the severity and reality of war, and this situation.
          Also, the next time the peach blossoms and the peach trees are mentioned is when Joby is flicked by a peach blossom. Right before this, Joby was crying about how he probably wouldn't make it through the battle with no weapon, even no protection, whereas the oter boys are scared but also wanting to be hero's and more confident. In our minds, whether or not we think about it, I think the idea of peach blossoms, or even blossoms in general, would be considered 'light' and 'happy' and certainly nothing relating to war and death. I think that the peach blossom shows the idea of the innocence and youth held by all of the boys no matter how grown up they've been forced to become. right after this the general calls Joby a 'boy' which because I was thinking of the innocence really stood out to me as further proof of the real idea of what the soldiers are.
          Lastly, the peach blossoms are mentioned in the last line. This is right after Joby has begun to accept that he may die in battle but either way he will charge into the battlefield giving everything to his army no matter what the cost. First, it stuck out to me that Ray Bradbury would close the story with the peach blossoms. He would obviously not do so unless it was important. I thought that they were supposed to have an effect of finality which, really, is what I got from reading that last line. I thought that not only does the idea of peach blossoms seem light and happy, but really just calm and peaceful. It gives you a sense that everything's going to be okay. When Joby falls asleep then I think that that idea of everything being okay and finality is how he appears to feel.
           All of these mentions of peach blossoms in the story, show me that they are really metaphorical and deep, which leads me to the fact that they obviously are important. To me they were almost like clues, they give you a little idea of whats really going on, without directly telling you, and leave you to really think about the rest.