2. Write about about one character from the story. Choose the character either because you like/dislike him/her or because you can relate to them. Describe what you like or dislike and tell why. Use specific passages from the text to support your answer.
Nathan Price is a character that just digs under my skin. As a literary device, he has sparked multiple class discussion. To others, he might seem unbelievably rigid and two-dimensional, but to me, he is a real life personality embodied by Barbara Kingsolver’s text. Personally, I have had many experiences with people that encompass certain aspects of his character. Everything Nathan Price represents is completely antithetical to his mission as a preacher and hypocritical as a follower of Jesus Christ, and that is why I dislike him.
We are introduced to Nathan early in the novel. He is a zealous Baptist missionary going to work in the Congo. He intends to spread the word of Jesus Christ to the “savage” Congolese people. Armed with the teachings of the Lord, the Congo population will, idealistically, become civilized, God-fearing, capitalist Christians. There are so many details that are so inherently wrong with Nathan’s scheme that it is difficult to find a starting point. Primarily, this religious intervention in the African jungle relies on the basic belief that the Congolese civilization is riddled with chaos, heathens, and idiots. Nathan assumes that because they are not Christian, their lives are not fulfilling. As the industrialized white man, Nathan clearly knows best. It does not take long for the Congo to crush his “white” practices. They do not stand a chance against the ruthless elements of the Congo. The vegetable garden scenario highlights his hypocrisy. He brings a bounty of seeds from Georgia and ignores Mama Tataba’s advice while planting them. Needles to say, the garden is almost immediately destroyed by the pounding Congo rain. When he finally concedes to the more effective Congolese farming techniques, he is ungrateful and avoids admitting his failure and condescension. His daughter Adah observes her father’s stubborn pride when she remarks, “No one can say he does not learn his lesson, though it might take a deluge, and though he might never admit in this lifetime that it was not his own idea in the first place. Nevertheless, Our Father had been influenced by Africa.” (63).
Nathan’s religious fanaticism is the most aggravating aspect of his character, in my opinion. Nathan’s actions and attitudes revolve around ignorance, discrimination, judgment, and inflexibility. His values are antithetical to the Christian doctrine. Nathan emits an essence of corruption and mistrust when he preaches about love and universal redemption when he clearly dismisses the validity of the Congolese way of life. His attitude is exemplified by the fact that he pronounces the Congolese word for “Jesus” incorrectly so that it presumes the meaning of “poisonwood”. It is ironic to the point of hilarity that Nathan claims to love all brothers and sisters in Christ when he was too careless to learn his brother’s language.
Raised in a strictly Catholic home, led by a hard-headed father, I can understand the oppression the Price women suffer within their family. This is possible why Nathan infuriates me so much. I can relate to him so much as a father figure (in regard to his overbearing faith) that his character evokes such an acute response in my memory. It angers me because Nathan represents a faction of so-called Christians that are the epitome of the evils they preach about. Paired with his prejudices and misogynistic tendencies, these factors combine to create Nathan’s close-minded arrogance.
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