Essay #1

Alienation, Isolation, Exile

 



Edward Said once said that the compelling sadness of someone being torn from their former life "can never be surmounted," yet he also seemed to think that the experience can be "potent, even enriching." In The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingston we see an entire family that is torn from their former home and life to rebuild themselves in an area unknown to them. However, the character that seems to take the destruction of their former life that hardest is Rachel Price, the oldest daughter. Throughout the novel she is depicted as girly, materialistic, and very unwilling to set even a toe on new the dirt, yet it is the same dirt she would later call home. Rachel at first was alienated, removed from a familiar area, and then seen as different by the people of Kilanga, yet her life was enriched at the end of the novel, with new culture and an entirely new lifestyle. Being isolated is ultimately what made Rachel who she was at the end of the novel.

 

Rachel was not only alienated and taken from her childhood home, she would soon find that she would also be alienated in Kilanga. From the start, people saw her differently, she had pale, sickly skin and blonde hair, she was a common target for hair pulling and staring. Kilanga was also a very new atmosphere, the people had very different traditions and it was hard for Rachel to suddenly have to face new concepts. The very first day she had to eat a piece of hairy, burned, sheep meat, practically forced down her throat as to not be rude, and stare at naked woman cooking. It was quite difficult for her to assimilate into this new society. However, the hardest part was probably admitting to herself that she could never return to her old life after 2-3 years in Kilanga. Kilanga had caused a change in her, and she also had the fear of being judged and not being able to fit in back home. Alienation caused this girl to lose her home, once as a choice made by her father, and a second time in never being able to return to her homeland.

 

Although Rachel did face many challenges and forms of alienation in Kilanga, it is also where she eventually found her second home and was able to rebuild her life. Not only did she learn to accept and see the culture as normal, but she was also able to live and work with it. Kilanga gave her the opportunity to return to her 'high social class,' where she was able to marry, multiple times, and eventually able to commit to her very own business. Without ever being alienated, she would have never had the opportunity to become a wealthy business owner. Said also states that the insurmountable sadness occurs when there is separation "between the self and its true home." Rachel found her 'true home' within the rich, high class, white society of Africa, and she could not bear leaving and feeling alienated once again back in her 'homeland.' Another thing Rachel learned was how to cope with her feelings through alienation. After the initial shock of being in an entirely new setting, she grew accustomed not only to death, but to the craziness that affected her father, and the entirety of Kilanga.

 

Alienation illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole because none of the events would have occurred if not for the initial 'crisis' of being displaced from home. Being exiled, being removed from one's home is what gave this work its initial conflict. Being alienated caused something to change within Rachel, and within everyone in the family. Alienation in this novel goes to show that the words 'isolation' and 'exile' can have a positive connotation along with the negative.