The Poisonwood Bible Study Guide

The Prices

• Orleanna Price– Nathan's wife and the mother of their four daughters. Born in Mississippi, she is deferential to her husband but independent-minded
• Nathan Price– Orleanna's husband. An evangelical (Southern Baptist) minister and a World War II veteran from Georgia, determined to "save Africa for Jesus".
• Rachel Price (15 at start of the novel)– the oldest Price girl; blonde and self-centered, she is obsessed with her looks and American consumer culture.
• Leah Price (14 at start of the novel)– Adah's tomboyish twin; intelligent, self-confident, competitive, and tenacious. The most outspoken of the women, Leah is prone to dogmatism and concerned with her own salvation.
• Adah Price (14 at start of the novel)– Leah's twin, hemiplegic from birth. Silent but witty, she is brilliant in math and languages, but is envious of her twin. She is also skeptical, sarcastic, envious, and prone to self-pity.
• Ruth May Price (5 at the start of the novel)– the youngest Price girl; she is playful, independent, adventurous, perceptive, and inquisitive.

Other characters

• The Underdowns– Belgian mission chiefs who welcome and send supplies to the Prices.
• Eeben Axelroot– a corrupt South African mercenary pilot.
• Anatole Ngemba– the village teacher; an orphan, his fluency in English allows him to be an interpreter for Nathan's sermons.
• Brother Fowles– a New Yorker; the Prices' predecessor on the mission. Married to a local woman.
• Mama Tataba– a village woman, formerly employed by Fowles, who works for the Prices. Best known and celebrated for her prestigious quote 'You got to be make hills.'
• Tata Ndu– the chief of Kilanga.
• Tata Kuvudundu– the spiritual leader of the village.
• Nelson– an orphaned village boy; he is Anatole's student who works for the Prices. He is forced to sleep outside in the chicken coop.
• Methuselah– a parrot left by Brother Fowles; it is excellent at imitating human speech.