Multiple Points of View in The Poisonwood Bible

Author Barbara Kingsolver, in her The Poisonwood Bible, uses multiple points of view to tell the story of a family of missionaries that move to the Congo to missionvwork amidst a cloud of political turmoil. The points of view in this story cycle between the mother Orleanna, an her four children Leah, Adah, Ruth May, and Rachel, while skipping over the father’s point of view during the entirety of the novel. The multiple points of view allow the author to represent the family in almost every respect. Each daughter and the mother have their views equally characterized through their own point of view.
One author writes that multiple points of view “allows an author to piece together a complex story without requiring a single character to know and see everything” (Coe). I think this definitely applies to The Poisonwood Bible. Since there are so many characters and the back drop is set in the midst of a political revolution the story can become quite cloudy. By using the tool of having multiple points of view the author is able to show many different things in the story without giving away too much.
Also, I think that the multiple points of view allows the author to use subtlety in revealing different character details. For example, throughout Adah’s points of view we see her disability come into play while it goes unrecognized, for the most part, by the other sisters. For example, at the end of Adah’s first chapter in Genesis she says “It is true I do not speak as well as I can think. But that is true of most people, as nearly as I can tell” (Kingsolver 34).
Also, I think it’s very interesting how Kingsolver uses the multiple points of view for everyone except the father but is very good at giving a representation of the father through other points of view. For example, the reader is able to understand the father’s stubbornness through other’s such as when he stung by the plant after being told repeatedly that it would hurt him if he did not handle it right and when he repeatedly preaches to the tribes people, embarrassing them about their social normality.
Finally, one author says that multiple narration is usually used in documentaries and I find this very interesting because the novel itself almost reads as if it were a documentary and the women of the family are being interviewed (Love). Like in a interview documentary we only see what the girls choose to reveal to us and that makes the story itself more suspenseful as a whole.
Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible is a classic example of novels that use multiple points of view. This multiple points of view allows the reader to maintain suspense throughout by not revealing everything all at once and only revealing what the characters choose to reveal. One very interesting thing in the novel that arises from the multiple points of view is the representation of the father who is portrayed perfectly without having a point of view himself. The novel is a great piece of literature and one of the only ones that is able to make multiple points of view work like clockwork.
 


Works Cited
Coe, David. “Point of View. Single VS Multiple.” January 5th 2009. Magical Words: Writing Tips and Publishing Advice for Aspiring Novelists. http://magicalwords.net/david-b-coe/point-of-view-single-vs.-multiple/

Kinsolver, Barbara. The Poisonwood Bible. Copyright 1998. Haprper Collins Publishers. New York City, New York.

Love, Tim. Multiple Points of View. Published January 2006. University of Cambridge. http://www2.eng.cam.ac.uk/~tpl/texts/multipovs.html

Cultural Icons: Bob Dylan & Allen Ginsberg

Bob Dylan’s music is reflective of political and cultural notions throughout the 1960’s to present day. Zit is undeniable that Dylan himself was influenced both in thought and in art by Allen Ginsberg and the rest of the beat generation. Dylan’s music is very similar to the work of Ginsberg in it’s themes and the feeling is mutual as Ginsberg himself has noted that Dylan’s music not only reflects his sentiments but inspires him as much as he inspired Dylan.
An obvious comparison to Dylan and Ginsberg are the political influences that flowed from Ginsberg. Take for instance Bob Dylan’s A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall. This song is a political protest ot nuclear war and the reaction to the Cold War. On the other end Allen Ginsberg’s poem talk a lot about war morals and the cold war itself. For example, in Dylan’s song he says “I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken, I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children,” this line, amongst others, is a blatant response to those in power who are quicker to jump towards violence than reasoning (Dylan). To show where this influence could have stemmed from, we can look at Ginsberg’s “America” where he says “America, when will we end the human war? Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb” (Ginsberg) Both of these songs reflect the violent tendencies of America. Looking at examples directly from “Howl,” Ginsberg says in the opening lines “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix” (Ginsberg). This line seems to reference the “greatest minds of my generation” as government officials, and these ideas are mirrored in Dylan’s songs like “The Times They Are A-Changing” when Dylan says “Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call, don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall,” which mirrors similar intents of talking directly to those in power (Dylan).
This influence is not lost on Ginsberg either, he said once about Dylan “…It was the "Masters of War," I think, and ["A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall"]. And I was really amazed. It seemed to me that the torch had been passed, from Kerouac or from the beat genius on to another generation completely, who had taken it, and he'd taken it and made something completely original out of it, and that life was in good hands. I remember bursting into tears” (Ginsberg). Ginsberg’s recognition of Dylan embracing the culture that authors like himself and Kerouac built is quite evident. Not only does Ginsberg realize it but there seems to be a mutual respect between the two men.
It is safe to say that Bob Dylan’s entire career was heavily influenced by Allen Ginsberg and the rest of the Beats Generation. We can compare Ginsberg’s “Howl” to Dylan’s entire discography and see similarities in thought about culture and politics. And in the end, as much as Ginsberg influenced Dylan it becomes obvious that Bob Dylan did the same for Allen Ginsberg.
 






Dylan, Bob “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. Columbia Recors, 1963.
Dylan, Bob “The Times They Are a Changing,” The Times They Are a Changing. Columbia Records, 1964. Tom Wilson
Ginsberg, Allen. Howl. City Light Books, San Francisco, CA. 1956
Zuckerman, Matthew. “If There's An Original Thought Out There, I Could Use It Right Now: The Folk Roots of Bob Dylan.” Dylan Influences. http://expectingrain.com/dok/div/influences.html. 20 February 1997.

Their Eyes Were Watching God: The Evolution of Janie

In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the protagonist Janie, goes through several phases throughout the duration of the novel. She changes from a young woman who is naïve and submissive to a woman who stands up for herself. Author Wendy J McRedie says that “Janie’s voice becomes the self actualizing voice of authority” (McCredie, 25). Janie goes from a submissive woman, both to the community and to her husband Jody, to a woman who doesn’t allow anyone but herself to influence her decision.
At the beginning of the novel, when Janie meets and marries Jody Starks, it is quite obvious that she is very submissive to her husband and lets him control her. One example of this submissive behavior comes early in the novel when Jody is named mayor and the town wants Janie to speak at a town meeting. Instead of letting Janie speak Jody interrupts and says “Mah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin,. Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place in de home” (Hurston, 43) This passage shows that Jodie is submissive to her husband and he has quite a bit of control over her life. The first half of the novel can be described as Janie desiring to have a voice in a world controlled by her husband who forces her to stifle her thoughts (McCredie, 27).
However, when Jody becomes sick Janie begins to change, she becomes braver and begins to speak out. Janie’s growth as a character and as a independent woman, begins to happen as Jody becomes ill and Janie realizes that she is able to escape from under the control of her husband. This can be seen as Jody lies on his death bed and Janie comes into see him, she tells him “You ain’t de Jody ah run off down de road wid. You’se whut’s left after he died. Ah run off tuh keep house wid you in uh wonderful way. But you wan’t satisfied wid me de way Ah was. Naw! Mah own mind had tuh be squeezed and crowded out tuh make room for your in mine” (Hurston 86). This shows that Janie is progressing as an individual and its no longer tolerant of having a man dominate her life.
Janie’s evolution and change as a character can be seen even further when she meets Tea Cake. After spending years with Jody, an abusive man, Janie is scarred and makes a decision to not allow herself to be dominated by him like she was with Jody. For example, after Tea Cake disappears and upsets Janie she responds by saying “Tea Cake, if you ever go off from me and have a good time lak dat and then come back heah tellin’ ,e how nice Ah is, Ah specks tuh kill yuh dead.” This is evidence that Janie is no longer going to let the men in her life walk all over her.
As the book continues Janie’s growth becomes more evident as she is able to fall in love with Tea Cake and they have a healthy loving relationship. However, the ending of the book is quite controversial. When Tea Cake gets rabies and tries to attack Janie she is forced to s hoot him. Some have interpreted this as being another act where a man attempts to stifle Janie, but I see it as the opposite, I see it as Janie finally growing enough to the point where she can firmly stand her ground against a man, even though it’s one she loves. The attack and shooting is not a message of dominance but the ending of a tragic romance. Author Jennifer Jordan writes “Tea Cake…falls in love with a lady, dedicates himself to making her happy, and sacrifices his life fighting the dragon” (Jordan)
This I ultimately shows how Janie’s growth has turned the tables, she has gone from a woman who was totally submissive to an oppressive husband to a woman who has a man she loves die for her.

Works Cited
Hurston, Zora Neale, Their Eyes Were Watching God. 1937. Harper Collins Publishers, 10 East 53r Street, New York, NY.
Jordan, Jennifer, “Feminist Fantasies: Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.” 1988. Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, Vol. 7, No. 1. Published by University of Tulsa.
McCredie. Wendy J., “Authority and Authorization in Their Eyes Were Watching God.” 1982. Black American Literature Forum, Vol. 16, No. 1. Published by St. Louis University.

Feminism & Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons displays feminism in various ways. Stein is a lesbian in a time when being a woman puts you in an already constructed gender role and homosexuality itself is a practice that is not welcomed by most of the country. Stein is able to advocate women’s rights and the views of feminist at the times by openly talking about female sexuality through her use of sexual imagery as well as being able to openly discuss her homosexuality.

One example of Stein’s frank discussion of women’s sexuality is the poem entitled A Box. Box is a rather crude slang term for a female anatomy. This poem alone is filled with sexual imagery and lines that can are almost certainly double entendres. One example of this sexual imagery comes late in the poem, “Left open, to be left pounded, to be left closed, to be circulating in summer and winter, and sick color that is grey that is not dusty and red shows,.” There are several images here that convey a sort of sexuality. The line “left to be pounded is a reference to sexual activity and words like “circulating” and “red” is almost certainly a reference to female anatomy. Another example of Stein’s overt sexual imagery comes through the poem Red Roses which reads “A cool red rose and a pink cut pink, a collapse and a sold hole, a little less hot.” The color red again references female anatomy as does other terminology she uses like “pink cut pink” and “a sold hole.” Gertrude Stein’s heavy references to female anatomy are a way in which she is able to express feminine ideals of sexual liberation in a time when women’s sexuality has been stifled.

Gertrude Stein was also a lesbian in a time that it was not okay for a person to announce themselves as a homosexual. Her sexual preference also plays a role in these poems which is another way in which Stein is able to make herself stand out as a feminist. For example, I read the poem “This is the Dress, Aider” as a sexual experience with another woman. She says things like “why whow, whow stop touch” and “stop the muncher, muncher munchers,” which seem again like crude references to sexual activity. These things sound like some sort of sexual experience, and knowing that Stein is in fact a lesbian and that a woman is referenced later in the poem leads me to believe that this entire poem is about Stein’s sexual encounters with another woman.

Feminism is a way in which women are able to liberate themselves from a suppressive society. Stein does this in her poem in a number of ways, namely in being able to have frank sexual imagery in her poems that create vivid images in her reader’s minds. Also, being a lesbian Stein is able to write about her homosexuality in an open way and this is another way in which women (both heterosexual and homosexual) are able to find freedom in a time of repression.