Adah Price's Evolution Trevor Horenkamp 11th Grade

Barbara Kingsolver’s, The Poisonwood Bible is a multi-voice novel about how a family’s life is transformed during their missionary work in the Congo. Each character shows a unique perspective throughout the story, providing deeper insights on the underlying themes developed. Adah Price can relate to the natives of the Congo, because she is faced with many hardships throughout the novel, similarly to the people of the Congo who confront many difficult situations. Adah Price moves to the Congo with a very negative and doubtful mindset, seen through her self-critiquing diction contributing to the overall melancholy tone, but later converted after a traumatic experience, to a more optimistic tone seen through her new, confident diction and use of point of view to represent her identity.

Adah Price was born with hemiplegia, leaving her disabled for most of her life. At the beginning of the novel, Adah sees herself as a nuisance to society, keeping to herself and only talking during emergencies. However, the Congo does provide some comfort to Adah, but she still feels as if her disability heavily handicaps her from acting normal. Adah faced lots of bullying in Georgia, being called names such as, “Slowpoke poison-oak running joke...