The Price Family
Who follows Nathan like a shadow for most of the book?
Leah
Who lost her legs?
Mama Mwanza
What is still on the goat in the stew when the Prices first arrive in the Congo?
The fur/skin
Who or what serves as a symbol for the doomed Republic of Congo?
Methuselah
"The smiling bald man with the grandfather face has another face."
-Adah Price
Adah makes this statement in Book Three, when she discovers that Dwight Eisenhower, President of the United States, is behind the CIA plot to overthrow the elected government of Congo and assassinate its president. It is significant, that these words are spoken by Adah, since they more perfectly capture the growing disillusionment with father figures (Nathan, God, and American leaders) that Orleanna and Leah are experiencing.
Which of the following events makes Adah feel that she has been abandoned?
Her mother choosing to save Ruth May instead of her
Who gave Leah her bow and arrows?
Nelson
What happened that scared the Congolese people away from the river?
A girl got eaten by a crocodile
What does Rachel’s nickname mean?
termite
I sensed that the sun was going down on many things I believed in.
--Leah Price
Leah sits with her father as he ponders the failure of his garden and his mistake about baptizing children in the river. She is shaken because Nathan is not infallible. He does not know everything, particularly in Africa, and he needs help. This is a revelation for Leah, and it makes her uneasy. This is the first shift in her idolization of her father, although it takes much of the book before she really accepts him as a flawed human being.
Who or what is Nathan ultimately devoted to?
Himself
Why does Nathan become enraged with Anatole?
Because Anatole delivers Tata Ndu's message
What happens as the villagers gather around Ruth May's body?
It starts to rain.
Who does the bird mimic when the Prices first arrive, leaving Nathan with the conclusion that this person became ‘Catholic’?
Brother Fowles
I felt the breath of God go cold on my skin.
-Leah Price
Leah utters this as she rows with Anatole across the river and away from the driver ants, in Book Three. Amid the tumult of escape, Leah and Anatole continue an ongoing discussion of race and justice, and Leah finally suffers her ultimate crisis of faith. Moments later she replaces her old faith with a new one, murmuring Anatole's name over and over feeling that, "it took the place of prayer." Her love for Anatole becomes her new anchoring force, taking the place of her father and his simplistic vision of God.
What type of missionary is Nathan Price?
Baptist
What do Adah, Leah, Rachel and Orleanna discover when they move Ruth May’s bed?
Her malaria pills
What gift does Nelson give to Ruth May when she falls sick with malaria?
A magic amulet called a nkisi
What are the two meanings of ‘bängala’?
Either "most precious" or "Poisonwood tree" depending on how you say it
"We are supposed to be calling the shots here, but it doesn’t look to me like we’re in charge of anything, not even our own selves."
Rachel
What or who represents different answers to the question, "How should we live with the burden of guilt"?
Each Narrator
What city was the Price family from?
Bethlehem, Georgia
What animal(s) does Mama Mwanza give the Prices?
chickens
What does ‘Tata’ mean?
Father
"The substance of grief is not imaginary. It's as real as rope ... It can kill. "
-Orleanna Price
Book 5, Orleanna is shaped by grief throughout the book. Every time she speaks directly to the reader, she is really speaking to Ruth May. She cannot forgive herself for Ruth May's death, and she lives the rest of her life acting out her grief.