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Ashila Jiwani Walls AP Lit/Comp 2 31 October 2013  Powerful While Being Powerless  Orleanna Price, a wife and a mother in the novel “The Poisonwood Bible” by Barbara Kingsolver, who is depicted as a weak and powerless woman, truly exemplifies numerous astonishing characteristics that may contradict ones first thoughts of understanding her personality. Overtime, Orleanna's true thoughts and motives become obvious. Intentions of hers are benevolent, but stopping her good actions from being conveyed are society and her husband, Nathan Price. Although it seems as if Orleanna is not the ideal mother, she is, indirectly, the most influential in her daughter’s lives; she taught them how to be powerful while being so powerless in society. Orleanna Price speaks, but is never heard. She clearly says in the beginning of the novel, “I had no life of my own” (Kingsolver 9), and that statement proves that living under the rule of Nathan Price and a primarily patriarchal society, she was just an accessory for Nathan that completed the grand family portrait, and as time goes on she begins to accept that reality silently without any interference for the sake of her children. Orleanna remained as an ideal wife of the time period: saying nothing and accepting everything. Once she was married to Nathan Price, her life had changed drastically, and “every cell was married to Nathan’s plan” (Kingsolver 199), and all she could really do was silently watch Nathan control her as if she were a puppet. Wordlessly, within herself, she knew that this ignorance is not what she wanted, but for her children, or at the moment that is what she thought, she continued to follow her husband every step of the way, and the first impression that Orleanna leaves on the reader is that following her husband’s decisions are more valuable to her than being the mother her children desperately need, and this decision affects the daughters in numerous ways. She realizes that Nathan, the father (and I use this term lightly), is ruining the innocence and confidence of their children, and she blames herself for the loss of her daughters childhood and constantly contemplates to herself, “If only I hadn’t let the children out of my sight that morning. If I hadn’t let Nathan take us to Kilanga in the first place” (Kingsolver 323-324), and as time goes on she realizes that her daughters need mother figure; in fact, they need a parental figure that will act as a form of support and so she bravely decides to leave her husband in order to free herself and her children from the jail they were trapped in. Throughout the novel, it is obvious that her girls are craving for attention and do not want to be stuck in a position like their mother. The drastic attitudes of each child were methods to ask for a proper parental figure in each ones lives, but Nathan would not let Orleanna be the mother they needed, and Nathan failed at being the father they wanted. Hence, the extreme experiences that the girls went through were indirectly the fault of their mother. Orleanna Price knew what she wanted to do, but because she was not permitted to act like the woman and wife and mother she wanted to be because as she says “[t]here are countless laws of man and of nature, and none of these is on [a woman’s] side” (Kingsolver 191). Hence, she quit at trying so passionately, but if she had stood up for herself earlier than maybe her daughters would have had a stronger childhood that would have given each of them the confidence they were missing at such a young age. Rachel would have believed in herself more and would not need the word of a man to tell her that she is beautiful; Adah would have spoken sooner and learned that even a female’s opinions do matter. Although the world is great to observe, sometimes being a part of it may give one a better story. Leah would have learned earlier that a male figure is not necessary in life, whether it may be a father, a husband, or God, and maybe Ruth May would not have died. It is likely that at first the daughters think that their mother does not care for them as much as a mother should actually care for her daughters, but the fact that Orleanna remains next to Nathan as a loyal wife is ignored by all four girls. She deals with Nathan Price only so she could remain in her daughters’ lives, even if that meant silently. Her quiet acts did not affect the children in grand manners because she was always caught up in providing a safe environment for the girls, her silent effects did protect them from various issues – including their father and her husband. If she had left Nathan earlier then she would have lost her daughters to the father who is more of a critic to the girls, and the young women would not have transformed into the confident women and powerful women Orleanna hoped for them to become. As Green writes, “Orleanna sees the problem early on, but she can do nothing, caught as she is in the daily struggle to protect her daughters from snakes, killer ants, dysentery, disease, starvation – and their father” (1-2). She suffered a great deal for her four youngsters, and that suffering taught the girls (or most of the girls) the importance of opinions and feminism, and this what makes her so powerful. Although the effect was later, she did indirectly teach the four developing women the most important lesson in a female’s life, but she later realized that sitting on the sidelines and watching her children mature was not the ways she wanted to be apart of their life. She was regretting not having a say of her own in their lives, and decided to make some crucial changes. After the death of their daughter Ruth May Price, Orleanna stands up against Nathan and abruptly decides to leave but with the girls. Her steps toward freedom for herself were the biggest footsteps of inspiration in the three developing women’s lives as well. Because she blamed herself for Ruth May’s death, as an act of redemption, she assists her daughters towards their designated paths towards the free and proper life they deserve. Her life experience became a source of guidance for the girls. Even though she did not give them specific advice as they were growing up because she was too busy being controlled by Nathan and watching him control her daughters, that treatment she received from her husband showed the girls that it is not okay to let someone else control your life. As Adah says, “the mistakes are part of the story” (Kingsolver 533), and that mistake of not abandoning early is what had the biggest impact on each of the daughters’ stories. Even as a woman, each lady has rights – rights to speak, rights to a voice, and rights to act, and these are the lessons Orleanna indirectly teaches her girls, and that is what has shapes the girls into the independent women they ultimately become. Although Rachel does not make such a grand transformation, she does learn that multiple men are not necessary to be beautiful. Most of the girls learn that they have a right to make a difference, and as Ognibene explains, “Orleanna and the twins, however, experience a redemptive sense of worth” (7). She continues to write, “All three women become advocates for justice: civil rights, medical research on AIDS and revolutionary educational practices for the poor people in the Congo” (Ognibene 7). Orleanna succeeds in teaching her grown children the importance of changing into being confident and impactful women. It is arguable that Orleanna Price is a selfish mother for her four daughters, but if details are analyzed Orleanna Price is truly a selfless mother for her transforming daughters. For the four girls, she underwent an enclosed life, although later realizing that it may be the best decision to escape the power of Nathan Price because his “evangelical, self-righteous, judgmental attitudes threaten the lives of his family” (Ognibene 2). For a better life for her daughters and herself that she has been dreaming of for many years she realizes that no matter how risky it may be, she needs to leave. Her experiences have influenced the girls more than anything else has throughout their lives because being women of the same time period as their mother, Orleanna’s experiences were life lessons for them that explained to them women should not be forced into acting as blind followers even if that is what was suggested by society; women have rights, women have opinions, and women deserve a chance. Opinions and thoughts of women matter, and no man or society has the right to say so otherwise. Works Cited Green, Gayle. "The Poisonwood Bible." //The Women's Review of Books// Apr. 1999: 8. //Literature Resource Center//. Web. 30 Oct. 20 Kingsolver, Barbara. //The Poisonwood Bible//. New York: HarperCollins, 1998. Print. Ognibene, Elaine R. "The Missionary Position: Barbara Kingsolver's //The Poisonwood Bible//." //College Literature// Summer 2003: 19-36. Rpt. in //Contemporary Literary Criticism//. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 346. Detroit: Gale, 2014. //Literature Resource Center//. Web. 30 Oct. 2013.