Price Girl Roles

Recently in English we've been reading the Poisonwood Bible. I have started reading the first chapter Genesis, where we are introduced to the four Price girls, daughters of Nathan Price, an Evangalist Baptist missionary who takes his family out of Georgia into the uncertain, unstable Congo, Africa. With the hopes of spreading the gospel to the 'heathen' Congolese, the daughters in chapter one each give their accout of what happens in the beggining of the mission. Each daughter with a vastly different perspective on the purpose of the trip and of the people they meet in the Congo.

LEAH PRICE
The first daughter we hear from is Leah Price. My first impression of Leah from the beginning of the book was that she was that she was very obedient to her father. This is reinforced as you read on through the chapter where Leah narrarates. We see her obedience to her father when they go out to this field and plant some Georgia squash, and pumpkins like back at home. She slaves right next to her father and tends to his hand and foot. Leah admires her father very much. She is a tomboy as she claims in this chapter as well, "Mother claims I have the manners of a wild animal myself, as I am a tomboy, but I never fail to be respectful of my father's garden" p.64. It seems we can get a sort of boyish point of view on the events and things that go on in the book. We will sort of get a open view of what her father might be thinking since he is a great influence in her life.

RACHEL PRICE
Rachel Price is the oldest daughter of Nathan Price. She is a very straight forward character. She is the polar opposite of Leah. She is very girly. She is hates the fact that the family has to leave civiliation and life with the Congolese people. Leah quotes father, telling us that "Father feels makeup and nail polish are warning signals of prostitution," Rachel Price loves all material things. She is very light skinned. She has very long whitish blonde hair which all the villagers of Kilanga adore. "Everwhen she goes out, whole bunches of little Congo children run after her on the road a-reaching and a-yanking on her long white hair to see i fthey can get it to come off." It is quite evident that she will be the devile advocate toward everything that goes on in Kilanga. I think this is good because then we get to see the perspective a girl who is very wrapped up and immersed in the American way of life and thinking. So we can see the trials that she goes through and we can observe how she reacts to everthing that is put infront of her.

RUTH MAY PRICE
Ruth May Price, the youngest of all the sisters, has a very key role in the telling of this story. She is still very young and in her youth she is still learning a great deal about the world and how she is supposed to live in it. She gets to follow the lead of her father, mother and sisters. She is basically a small mirror that reflects the thoughts and ideas and values of the family. She basically repeats everything she hears and is given to her, though she does tend to probably distort things alittle, she is a good reference. She already has a few American culture values imprinted in her, but she is still young and can easily be swayed into new ideas and new perspectives. She is very stubborn though, it says in one chapter that Ruth May is so stubborn, and that she would do anything to win a game. Leah says that she hid in the fire box when they were all playing hide and seek. "Ruth May is so intent on winning Hide and Seek, or any game for that matter, she would probably go ahead and burn up before she'd ever yell and give herself away." p.65. This is very intresting because she is very young and I think this makes her strong in her youth. I guess all kids need to feel a sense of strength and control when your young.

Adah Price
Of all the Price sisters, I think Adah is the most interesting. From her I think we'll get a very interesting point of view. When we hear the first descriptions of her in the beggining of the story she sounds like a menataly ill girl who cannot function correctly. But as we hear her in her narrative, she is far from mentally ill or disfunctional. She is amazingly functional, I think the most functional and comfortable in herself and what she believes. She will give us the "out there" point of view, the deep hidden meaning type things. The thinking outside of the box, all of this I think will be done by this sister. She will pull everything together and put up for observation. She does not speak and all she truly does is observe all thats going on around her and criticize. She is good at what she does, she is quite, she believe is her quiteness she learns alot more. It is an excelent theory. I think she will give us alot through out the book.