Culture of the Congo

Barbara Kingsolver's novel, The Poisonwood Bible represents the culture of the people in Congo. Throughout the novel, the layers of the Congo peoples' culture unfold, and each narrator -- Rachel, Leah, Adah, Ruth May, and Orleanna -- helps to dissect different aspects of it. For instance, Leah Price's explains to the reader that the women "look as old as the world. Any colorful thing they might hold in their hands, like a plastic bucket, stands out strangely. Their appearance doesn't sit square with the modern world." (109) As a reader analyzing this new culture, I came to the conclusion that the women in Congo starkly contrast to women in America in almost every way possible. Leah, in this case, chose to expose just one way in which The Poisonwood Bible openly represents a non- American culture. Leah further explains that unlike American women, women in the Congo traditionally, according to their culture "have no real hair to speak of... [but] if they've got an inch or town to work with, hairdressers would wrap springs of it in black thread so it stands up in little spikes." (109) Throughout the novel too, cultural differences are explained by the characters. For instance, Mama Boanda Number Two's is an example of a woman who has "little spikes" sticking out from the top of her head because in general, women in this region chose to express their beauty in this fashion.

In addition to women's hairstyles, the characters explain that women too, instead of opening a bottle of water, or filling a glass of water from the tap, as Americans often do, women in the Congo carry buckets of water above their heads. Walking miles, these women fill a bucket of river water and carry it home to boil out the bacteria. In this way, it is evident that even the task of consuming water is different in a culture where technology has yet to reach that side of the world.

In one of Ruth May's early chapters, she does not hesitate to describe the culture of those living in the Congo by expressing her concerns for how they dress. As she entails " the girls don't ever, ever wear pants. And the little babies don't wear a speck of clothes so they can just squat down and pee-pee ever-when they take a mind to." Kingsolver chooses to add this tidbit of information to merely reflect the difference between American culture and the culture of those living in the Congo. In America, women are able to dress in any item of clothing they choose such as dresses, skirts, pants. In the Congo, however, women in pants is not allowed and considered shameful. This is yet again, another example of how Kilanga's culture differs from American culture.