The Palestinian
literary critic Edward Said wrote that "Exile is strangely compelling to
think about but terrible to experience.
It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native
place, between the self and its true home; its essential sadness can never be
surmounted." He also said that exile can become a "potent, even
enriching" experience. In the novel, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara
Kingsolver, a character that is both wounded and enriched from being exiled is
Leah Price. At the beginning of the novel, Leah Price is always looking for an
excuse or explanation for the things her father does, she is also impetuous and
sometimes speaks or acts without thinking. At the beginning of the story, the
reader can deduct that the exile in the Congo is not doing her any good;
however, by the end of the novel, the reader can see that being in Africa has
enriched her life.
In the novel, an
example of how exile can alienate someone is when Leah starts to see who her
father really is. At the beginning of the novel, none of the Price women wanted
to be in the Congo, the only reason that Leah could possibly be happy was
because her father was there. Leah idolized her father and believed that his
father had a reason for being the way he was. To Leah, her father was sort of a
home. As the novel went by, she began to see true colors of his father’s
personality and began to despise him for it. Without her father to look up to,
Leah’s “home” began to crumble.
An example that exile
can be an opportunity to grow is that by the end of the novel Leah fights for
the African Freedom, showing that she doesn’t only care about people close to
her but for the whole country. When Leah fell in love with Anatole, they both
joined the movement and even though Leah was no longer Christian, she is still
the same idealistic girl that she was when she first got to the Congo.
In conclusion, in this
novel, the reader can see that exile can be a hurtful experience but an
opportunity to grow at the same time. When Leah first arrived at the Congo, she
was an idealistic girl who viewed her father like her home because she only saw
the best qualities on him. Due to her exile, by the end of the novel she saw
the reality of her father. However, the exile also helped her find a cause
worth fighting for, African Freedom.
