Poisonwood Bible Family Conflicts Essay

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Poisonwood Bible Family Conflicts
All families have conflicts, and the Price family is no exception. Within the story there is an overriding conflict regarding the Price women‘s opposition to the move to Africa. Beyond this, Nathan has many other conflicts with each of his daughters. Leah and her father had a very different relationship than the other three Price daughters. Leah is the only daughter that wholeheartedly supports her father completely. As the story moves on she is faced with the harsh realities of daily life in the Congo, and begins to see her Fathers faults. She soon wants to be her own person, and not be controlled by her father. The major parent/child conflict arises when Nathan does not recognize his daughter’s
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Nothing will ever please Nathan because he doesn’t really care about Leah; he only cares about spreading Christianity. This selfishness eventually leads to Leah disobeying her father like in this passage regarding the hunt Leah wanted to go on, “Leah slung her bow over her shoulder. “I’m going with the men and that’s final.” …Father went crazy. We’d always wondered what would happen is we flat-out disobeyed him… He lit out after her with his wide leather belt already coming out of his pants as he stomped through the dirt. But by the time he got to the edge of the grass of the yard she was gone.” (340).
This is the first time Leah actually disobeys Nathan. Leah wanted to be a part of the fight, and Nathan was holding her back. She wanted to become independent, but with Nathan controlling her she couldn’t. Nathan wouldn’t listen to her reasoning, instead he believed that he was right, and Leah was wrong. With this breakthrough Leah’s opinion of Nathan begins to change. She begins to see Nathan in a negative light, rather than her previous positive light. This quote is when Nathan is outraged at Tata Ndu’s election for Jesus Christ, “It was hard to believe I’d ever wanted to be near to him myself. If I had a prayer left in me, it was that this red-faced man