Essay#1

       In the novel The Poison Wood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver the main character, Adah Price, has experiences with exile from her hometown. Adah is a fourteen year old girl that had been born cripple and nearly mute at birth. When her and her family are forced to relocate to the Congo, she couldn't believe it nor process it through her head. Before she even arrived to her new home she had already thought to herself that she was not going to be in favor of the new culture she was about to be forced into. With the experience of exile, the character illuminates the book as a successful learning tool to her agonizing life.
   
      Adah was one of the daughters of an overzealous Baptist minister named Nathan Price. The mother, Orleanna passively accepts the turn of events when her husband decides to go deep into the heart of the Congo where he was on a mission to save the unenlightened souls of Africa. Adah had an older sister, Rachael, who was the oldest and the most beautiful of them all. Ruth May is the five year old adventurer that just brings happiness to the family while on the other hand Adah's twin sister Leah keeps to her self, but when her father's religious faith is involved, she's very enthusiastic. Through the hardships and difficult experiences she faces in Africa, finally her mother and her sisters make an escape from the father to leave Africa. A factor leading up to this departure was the death of her sister, Ruth May. Her death took a huge toll and part of Adah later on in her life. Another situation that took a toll on her was finally starting to enjoy Africa, her lifestyle and falling in love with the  subtle language of Lingala so when she was dragged out of something she was finally starting to open up to that was hard on her.
  
      When her, her mother and her sisters finally decided to depart secretly, scurrying fast away from their father, that mentally took a toll on her once again departing from what was again a hometown detachment. All of these hardships she constantly faces does nothing but make her stronger in the long run leading to her future. When she reaches Georgia, Adah pursues a career, goes to medical school and becomes a successful epidemiologist, taking on science as her religion. With this interest in the medical field, she is able to find a way to see the world in a different angle and overcome her handicap. She grows to love and admire the viruses she studies and goes on to study them in college.
    
       Overall analyzing Adah's life, it can be concluded as one that was extremely difficult both mentally and physically, but in the end all of the hardships she faced brought her up to the person she is today. So concluding, detaching Adah from her hometown shows how this one character illuminates into the whole novel.