inside of a dog

some questions for Thursday night

Crawford’s questions to get us thinking: The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)

Well here are a few ideas I have come up with at long last. It was not easy and I now appreciate more than ever the effort Lorna put in last month – but don’t let this put you off suggesting a book, just make it more straightforward than this one ;-) Given the structure and content of this book I genuinely worry that some of my points sound like English exam questions – that was not my intention, though I wish I had found English as interesting a subject while at school!! But as Lorna reminded us there are no ‘correct’ answers nor will any marks given out for them…

You will probably find some of these questions don’t interest you (and/or make much sense!) but pick out some that do and also feel free to bring a paragraph from the book that really ‘grabbed’ you and talk about why with the group. (Whatever your reaction to the book I hope you will agree that in places it is beautifully written and that you can find something to bring.)

Did you have any idea what the book was about before you started? If so, did it fit your expectations? (And those who were reading it for the 2nd time – how did it differ from what you remembered?)

Kingsolver uses an unusual style to tell the story with Orleanna beginning each main section with a personal ‘meditation’ and then each of the four daughters telling the story. Did this work for you? What did this style bring to the telling of the story?; What did it take away?

In her author’s note at the start of the book (pX) she says of her parents,

they brought me to a place of wonders, taught me to pay attention, and set me early on a path of exploring the great, shifting terrain between righteousness and what’s right.

(For those with us last month, I personally was struck that this seemed very close to the type of sentiment Brand might have expressed about his parents?) How do you feel the “terrain” she is talking about is explored in the book and in what senses is it “shifting”?

Before becoming a full-time novelist Kingsolver was trained as a biologist and anthropologist, more frequently writing scientific essays or research grant proposals than fiction. Do you feel that the book reveals any of her prior history or areas of study? (If so, how?)

In many ways this book is a sad and tragic tale. However, there are some moments of hope and happiness. What was the most joyous moment in the novel for you? And, what was the most poignant?

Those who get heavily into such things have referred to this novel as a “post-colonial” novel – i.e. as reflecting on the way in which Africa was treated as a place for conquest for the West in the last century. In what ways, if any, did you think the story read as a ‘political’ tale or commentary?

In some ways this book could be seen as quite anti-Christian, most obviously in the character of Nathan and by extension ‘missions’, but also in the way the Bible is used in the text (and indeed the title). Do you think it would be fair to assume that Kingsolver is anti-Christian or at least anti-religious?


Well, so much for the Higher English questions!! Perhaps more interesting would be to hear how people responded to particular characters/incidents in the book – so come prepared. In such a large and complex book it will be impossible to cover all the key moments in any one of our views, but it would be great if you felt like putting up one or two over the next few days.

Here are a few of the things that stuck out for me:

You’ll say I walked across Africa with my wrists unshackled, and now I am one more soul walking free in a white skin… I trod on Africa without a thought, straight from our family’s divinely inspired beginning to our terrible end. (p10)

What do these images of Orleanna and her family project for you? Are we/is she being too hard on herself?

Some of us know how we came by our fortune, and some of us don’t, but we wear it all the same. There’s only one question worth asking now: How do we aim to live with it?… I know people. Most have no earthly notion of the price of a snow-white conscience. (p10)

What do you think are the things that we might be ignoring to ensure that we or others, “sail through from cradle to grave with a conscience clean as snow”.

Father stared at the trees, giving no indication he’d heard his poor frightened wife, or any of this news. Father would sooner watch us all perish one by one than listen to anyone but himself. (p193)

Do you feel this rather flippant assessment of Rachel’s may in fact not be pretty accurate?

He meant personally to save more souls than had perished on the road from Bataan… and all other paths ever walked by the blight of mankind. (p226)

There seems something very guilty about Nathan’s all-pervading sense of righteousness – what is/are the source(s) of that guilt?


There is something very sad about the way that Adah refers to Nathan as “Our Father” – what a picture to portray of God! Which are Nathan’s worse characteristics and are there any redeeming ones?


What comments would you make on the way in which Nathan uses the Bible – which appears to become bangala in his hands?


When Leah tells Anatole that they should never have come to Africa he says,

No, you shouldn’t. But you are here, so yes, you should be here. There are more words in the world than no and yes. (p354)

What is Anatole getting at? Are there situations in ours lives, in our world, to which such a view might be a wise response?

The substance of grief is not imaginary. It’s as real as rope or the absence of air, and like both these things it can kill... As long as I kept moving, my grief streamed out behind me like a swimmer’s long hair in the water. I knew the weight was there but it didn’t touch me. Only when I stopped did the sick, dark stuff of it come floating across my face, catching my arms and throat till I began to drown. So I just didn’t stop. (p433)

What were the main causes of Orleanna’s grief? Do you think she comes to terms with it or finds any forgiveness in the end?

posted by Crawford @ 10:08 AM