By moving Nathan Price, a missionary from Georgia, and his wife and four children to the Belgian Congo, Kingsolver offers a backdrop that demonstrates the flaws in America's society, especially their religious attitudes and political ideologies at a time when the Congo was seeking its independence. Kingsolver described her novel as a "political allegory"1, and the family as a whole demonstrate this, while individual characters, such as Nathan and Rachel Price more obviously act to …showed first 75 words of 3124 total…

…showed last 75 words of 3124 total…that is just as much about America, a portrait, in absentia, of the nation that sent the Prices to save the souls of a people for whom it felt only contempt"8. 1.         Barbara Kingsolver, 'Dialogue' section, Kingsolver website 2.         Ibid. 3.         Ibid. 4.         'scmark' - "The Poisonwood Bible" Review 5.         Wilson - "The Poisonwood Bible" Review 6.         Barbara Kingsolver, 'Dialogue' section, Kingsolver website 7.         Wagner-Martin - "The Poisonwood Bible" A Reader's Guide 8.         Klinkenborg - "Going Native", New York Times Review - October 18, 1998