Essay #1

ESSAY #1
    
     "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." This famous quote, from the wise mouth of Edward Said, conveys the hardships  one experiences when they are neglected from their "home." Exile is noted as when an individual is either shunned or directed away from their home place. One novel that depicts exile greatly is The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingslover. One character that demonstrates this devastating exile is Rachel. When her and her family are forced to relocate to the Congo, she couldn't believe it. Before she even arrived to her new home she had already installed in her brain that she was not going to be in favor of the new culture she was about to be forced into.
    
     In this novel, Rachel Price, the eldest daughter of the Price's, had a hard time adapting to the Congo. Her great amount of negativity portrayed throughout the transition, impaired her ability to connect with and adapt to the culture and people of the Congo easily. All of a the antagonism she brings upon her journey makes her outlook of and journey in the Congo a lot worse and dramatic. If she would have neglected all of it and tried to adapt to the culture first, she wouldn't have felt so depressed about the transition. Also, early on in the move to Congo, she was troubled in which she was extremely worried about her reputation and what the people in both Africa and her original home town would think about her. People in her previous home viewed her as a snooty, lazy, and stubborn girl who doesn't deserve anything without her earning it. Ironically, the citizens of the Congo had never seen an individual who stood out quite like Rachel.  Her being a light skinned, blue-eyed, young girl was very shocking and unusual to them. This was devastating to Rachel and caused her to consider that she was sent to live in this "horrible place" as punishment but little does she know, things will take a turn for the better in a blink of an eye.
    
     Rachel promptly began to realize that maybe the Congo wasn't as bad as she had first expected. As hard as it got for her, she still, somehow, made the best out of what she was provided with. Soon after she begins to think negatively about the Congo, she marries a very wealthy man who is the owner of a luxury hotel which Rachel treats as her own personal kingdom. This is extremely beneficial to her because as she is a very materialistic girl, and  is provided with the prissy lifestyle she had always dreamed to live. This high class life style resulted in her never returning back to the states to continue her life with her family because of the fact that she was intrigued by the attention and reputation she was receiving from her marriage. She was then satisfied with the stereotypical life she was neglected into and blocked out her initial views of and experiences in the Congo. Her relocation to a new home was the best thing that had ever happened to her, in many ways. It gave her the knowledge that life isn't all about reputation and materialistic objects, its about finding in life what you love the best and pursuing your lifelong dreams. This experience gave her a totally diverse outlook on life than she contained in the beginning of the journey in which conveys the story's meaning and purpose. Barbara Kingslover's intent for this novel was for the reader to obtain each and every characters point of view throughout the transition and to form a connection with each and everyone of them. It provided the reader with a scenario in which individuals are exiled and forced to adapt to a diverse culture that is far from the one they were born into.