The Poisonwood Bible- Exodus and the End

The Poisonwood Bible ends with three books: Exodus, Song of the Three Children, and The Eyes in the Trees. Exodus details how Orleanna left Kilanga with her three children, and how they eventually made it out of the Congo. Song of the Three Children takes place several years after Exodus, and shows the perspectives of the three remaining Price girls and their lives. Finally, The Eyes in the Trees is a short chapter from the perspective of something that watches over a forest in Kilanga, which is presumedly the ghost or spirit of Ruth May. 

Nathaniel

We hear about what happened after the rest of the Price family left Nathaniel from Leah. He wandered for a while, growing older and madder, and never gaining a following. He managed to survive for around two decades without the support of the family that took care of practically his every need. After multiples threats to baptize children in the river, the villagers of the town he is in decide to burn a watch tower with him trapped inside. Unfortunately, one of the greatest disappointments of the novel is that we do not ever get a chapter from his perspective, leaving all sympathy for him up to the reader's kindness. His demise is fitting for the way he lived his life, and I believe he is still one of the most interesting characters in the novel, as well as the hardest to sympathize with. 

Orleanna

Orleanna finally decides after Ruth May's death that she is going to leave the Congo, no matter what. In the morning she leaves along with Rachel, Leah, and Adah, and she walks on foot for days to make it from town to town, eventually managing to get a flight back home to Georgia along with Adah. When home, she takes to gardening, and starts selling flowers. She lives alone, with Adah attending Emory University, and then going on to become a doctor. She constantly mourns the loss of Ruth May, and she attempts to distract herself with her botanical garden. In one of the final chapters, we learn from Adah's perspective that she becomes extremely depressed around mid-January, which is exactly the time of year that Ruth May died. She is never truly the same again, but thanks to Adah's monthly visits and who she is, she stays alive and keeps going. Orleanna never meets a definitive end, but we can assume that the remainder of her years are lived without much resolve, only trying to make the world a more beautiful place.

Rachel

Rachel leaves for South Africa with her new husband, Eeben Axelroot, whom leaves her for months at a time for his business endeavors. She decides to court a young, rich diplomat instead, and she becomes his mistress and then wife. Eventually, she realizes that a man willing to cheat on his previous wife does not make for a great husband, and she leaves him for a richer, older man. The man ends up dying, and she chooses to move to the French Congo, where she establishes a hotel named "The Equatorial." She uses her wealth to give it an upper-class, white-centric theme, and her business takes off. Though it is a lot of work for her, she enjoys it, and lives out her days unmarried and managing her resort. She is not fully content with her life but it is a fate that suits her. One last detail about the way Kingsolver writes from Rachel's perspective is that she chooses to misspell some words, and to confuse some words with others. Though Rachel puts up an witty front to the reader, her small slip ups reveal that she uses big words to sound more intelligent than she really is.

Leah

After leaving Kilanga, Leah chooses to stay in one of the villages that they pass along the way, with her new husband Anatole. Together they have four children, and Anatole is in and out of prison for several years due to his rebellious and pro-Lumumba nature. She is somewhat content with her life, though her choice to stay in the Congo is one that she has to constantly convince herself is for the best. She names three of her children after great people that were lost along the way, and her fourth after her father, once she learns what happens to him. I believe that Leah is deeply entrenched in her belief that she likes the Congo that she cannot realize that deep down she despises it. Though she loves her children, her husband, and the good people of the Congo, she hates the way people treat her, her memories of the places, the foreign involvement, and the malaria which still haunts her. On every January 17th, the day Patrice Lumumba and Ruth May died, she feels a great pain, as her and Orleanna alone have still not gotten over Ruth May's death. Her bold, headstrong approach led her to an appropriate fate; she will never be truly happy because she convinces herself that she enjoys the situation she is in.

Adah

Adah went back to Georgia with Orleanna and attended Emory University, going on to become a doctor who makes very important discoveries in African diseases. Miraculously, her limp is cured thanks to a fellow Emory doctor's advice, and through slow physical therapy where her body has to learn how to walk, she is fully healed. She lives close enough to her mother where she can visit her (often in silence) around every month. She is the only remaining member of the Price family to truly enjoy her new life, though she does miss her old self occasionally and the way her brain used to work. Thankfully, Barbara Kingsolver did not forget a detail that is vastly important for Adah's character. Though it was not mentioned at all in Bel and the Serpent, in Exodus she is plagued by the feeling of being left behind that she felt when her mother chose to save Ruth May instead of her during the ant attack. I was really hoping that these feelings were eventually addressed, because they cause her to question her value in her mother's eyes. Eventually, after contemplating for quite some time, she calls Orleanna on Christmas Eve to ask her why she left her behind. After some thought, her mother replies that she felt like she needed to save her youngest child, which is why once Ruth May died she focused on protecting Adah the most. Though this answer is somewhat disappointing (to me; Adah is content with it), I am just glad that Kingsolver included it at all. Over the course of the novel, Adah went from one of my favorite characters to one of my least favorite characters and then back to one of my favorite characters.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I believe that the second half of The Poisonwood Bible was a significant improvement from the first half. However, the final chapter from what appears to be Ruth May's perspective seems pointless to me. She does describe a few members of the Price family, but overall the chapter feels extremely out of place, especially as the conclusion to the novel. I will admit that there is a good chance any deeper meaning to the chapter is lost to me, but as of right now I believe it to be an extremely poor choice of a final chapter. The final chapter of a great novel will end in a great way, either being beautifully written, providing (or not providing) a conclusion to the story and the character arcs within the novel. However, I believe the final chapter of this novel falls flat. Otherwise, however, I enjoyed the read once it began to pick up, and I would recommend the novel to Historical fiction fans, or anyone who wishes to read an Africa-based novel.