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AP English Literature
Mrs. Turner
Question: How does Judgement in particular affect the overall message in the third book of
Judgement is one of the most comforting and familiar acts that a human can partake in. It
elevates us, sustains our convictions, and supports our moral and ethical inclinations. In The
Poisonwood Bible, judgment seems to be the only thing that everyone has in common.
Absolutely everyone in the book judges everyone else, especially those who they think
they are being judged by. Axelroot judges the Price Family for thinking they can change
Kilango, and he judges the Kinolingo people for being different. And everyone in Kilango (Price
Family included) thinks that he is a rude, perverted hermit who plays God. Adah thinks that no
one understands her, she thinks that she is above everyone else by keeping her thoughts to
herself. She feels as if she is judged by everyone, so she too judges everyone. Nathan judges
Orleanna for being a weak woman, and Orleanna judges Nathan for his cruelty, his lack of
compassion, and his steadfastness to things that don’t much matter. Judgement is reciprocal. We
as humans make sense of the world by fitting people into neatly labeled drawers. It comforts us
This, however, also cultivates a one-sided story. By placing ourselves on a pedestal made
from the degradation of others, we are ultimately hurting ourselves. This is true of the Congolese
people. They judge democracy and President Lumbada. Anatole said, “They can throw their
votes in one basket or the other, or perhaps in the river”. This demonstrates a lack of
understanding, but also a truckload of judgement. These people may have reacted to this
institution the way they did because they were judged by it. And after all, judgement is
reciprocal. The American people, a democracy, judge the conolgeese. In the beginning of The
Poisonwood Bible, Ruth May talks about how in school the teacher did nothing to dispel the
rumors about cannibalism in Africa. Americans have always and continue to degrade the
Congolese. Each news article and one-sided story produced only elevates “civilized” powers like
Belgium and America higher on their moral pedestal. And as such, they colonized the congolese
and treated them as less than human. Their judgement transformed these people into mere
animals. So why should the Congolese not judge the white man and his instruments of
democracy?
The Congolese people are numerous and they are important, America just can’t see it yet.
They are rather like Leah and Ruth May playing with the poor ants- the seemingly defenseless
ants. But, at the end of the chapter the ants fought back. The forced all of their oppressors off
their land. They were tired of being killed. And the congolese are tired of being dehumanized.
They could not perhaps put their sentiment into words, but the congolese people are tired of
being judged and treated like cattle. And right at the brink of this explosion of all this judgement,
America produced a man, firm in his judgements and sends him to the congolese to satiate their
anger. Nathan Price’s presence in the congo is perhaps the greatest irony of all. How is a man,
perhaps the most judgemental in all of America, suppose to calm the congolese, who are in this
situation in the first place due to the judgement of nations like that of which produced Nathan
Price?