Exile makes adapting to new enviorments much more difficult, unless you learn to overcome it and make the alienation work to your benifit. In The Poisonwood Bible by kingsolver Orlenna Price and her family move to a village in the Congo from Georgia, becuase they were white her and her family were treated disrespectfully. The Congolese felt that her and her family shouldnt of came to their village and try to change things. while living in the Congo, Orlenna is faced with many obstacles that make her feel completly exiled. She is faced with having to figure out a new way of surviving all by herself, and she is faced with a husband who is reluctant to take her side. These are things that lead to her breaking down because of the isolation. On the other hand becuase of the feelings she has, she makes and change and ultimately changes her life for the better. Her exile helps illuminate the theme becuase, she feels guilt that she let her, and her familys life in the Congo go so terribly.
Orlenna is left to deal with all the burdens of the new world they have moved into. She begins to realize that simple things as getting water for the family is no longer simple after Mama Tataba left them to fend for themselves. She begins to have no options and can no longer figure out how to help her family once the droughts start to happen. On top of adapting to the new enviroment the Pice family was not welcomed. She starts to not be able to care for her family, and later begins to feel guilt. Guilt is a major theme in this book because every member of the family does things to one another or to others that makes them feel out of place. Orlenna price begins to feel guilt when she realizes bringing her family to the Congo was not a good idea. One can feel exile from people they dont know, or from the people they know and love, and this is what happens to Orlenna to make her have a break down in the middle of the novel. Exile is something that someone must overcome in their personal feelings in order to feel a sense of community within themslef.
Realationships can have a sense of exile within them. Orlenna and Nathan Price in the novel have exile problems. Nathan feels like he should be the one that makes all the decsions for the family, and doesnt listen to her thoughts. This is another factor that leads to Orlenna having a break down. Orlenna realizes that it was a mistake to bring her fmaily to the Congo, and wants to go back to Georgia, but nathan refuses and sends her into a deeper feeling of issolation. Without equal resposibilities in a family some may feel that they have no control in what happens.Thus leading to guilt later on. Natan Price exiles Orlenna from every decsion making thing, and makes her feel unimportant to the family. Overcoming the feeling of exile, and finding a new sense of community is what the truly difficult part of exile is about. Working through all the hardships in life and becoming a better stronger person because of it.
Orlenna Price gains the strength after Ruth Mays death to finally take initiative and over come her exile from her husband, and the community. She takes her kids and begins to leave the Congo to go back to Georgia. She overcame her weakness of feeling exiled and alone and took action to change her life for the better. Leaving Nathan allowed her to move and get invovled in the things she loved before he took over her life. She felt guilt for putting her fmaily through all of that, and when Ruth may died she realized she couldnt let anything else effect her family. This is a big reason why guilt is a major theme in this novel. At the very end Ruth May forgives her mother, and ends the story with the guilt being alright in the end.
Exile is somthing that people can feel on a day-to-day basis. Orlenna Price let exile consume her life, but then took action and let exile shape her life into something much greater then it was before. Feeling alienated can feel terrible but the most important thing is to try and overcome all the bad things and allow it to have a good impact on your life. Orleanna fought her lonliness and guilt and sought better things in life and that is what she accomplished.
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