Diction

The diction in “The Poisonwood Bible” contributes immensely to the character identities that Kingsolver sets out to create. Many times color is used to represent the current mood of certain characters or even their personalities. For example, in the introduction of the novel, the colors yellow, green, and white are used to represent the Price family’s affluence, at least in comparison to the Africans they were about to meet. The colors yellow and green can be seen as a subtle allusion to wealth, yellow pointing to gold and green pointing to cash. The color white can represent two ideas: the color of their skin and/or their extreme naivety. Kingsolver even, in a forthright nature, names the materialistic family the “Price” family, can it get more obvious than that? 

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