Poisonwood Bible Blog post #2

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The front cover for The Poisonwood bible has an image of a tree against a red-orange background. The sky behind the tree is such a deep color that it is not assumed to be realistic. However, throughout the whole story there is extensive imagery about this dusty climate with the red sun watching over them. When they get out of the helicopter, the author describes the sun as foreign from their sun at home, an entity in itself that greets (and shocks) the family as the villagers did. It makes the sisters feel like they have completely left the world behind and were on another planet, and in a way, they have. The story unfolds in the beginning by a carefully constructed list of all the items they were taking, such as Betty Crocker cake mixes. They have left their entire life behind; the societal norms they are used to, their church, their school, and their home. They are essentially entering a ‘new world’ that is completely unknown to them. In Kilanga, they can’t imagine having shelves and shelves of “green bottles of aspirin and pencils”—the ones they brought seem to be the last ones left on Earth because they simply do not exist there, abundance is not a concept practiced in Kilanga. 

 Even when they get to experience a version of something they used to do at home, it still feels like a completely foreign activity. They dream of summers spent sitting by a riverbed in Georgia and eating fried chicken, the same event as sitting by the river in Kilanga and eating chicken that their mom had fried. There is a river, the family, chicken, heat. Yet in fruition those two things do not correlate in terms of atmosphere or experience at all. Those worlds do not collide. The front cover is indicative of this feeling of singularity and individualism. This single tree seems to be the only one that exists and lives there, the background and visible surroundings are completely bare. The tree represents the beauty and feel of Kilanga, but also this single family unit who feel as if they live alone alongside the tribe, rather than with them or a part of them. 

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