Gender and Queer Studies

The Poisonwood Bible is strongly influenced by the voice of its young narrator's. The four girls' maturation and specifically Leah, Rachel and Adah's venture into adolescence are important aspects of the story and narration. It is clear that from their father's rigid religious influence, they have grown up in a conservative household, especially in regards to their own gender roles and sexuality. The twins are precocious and intelligent beyond their years however, will not be able to further their education because, according to Nathan, it would be like pouring water into shoes.

In these recent chapters, the girls' gender binary based identities are based on the traditional, get married and create offspring mindset. Orleanna has them create "hope chest" in which the girls create small, feminine crafts to use after they are married. The girls' futures are clear in only one respect, they will get married.

Rachel is enthusiastic about the task, perhaps the most suited to this traditional role of the three adolescent girls. Leah particularly struggles with her parents' hopes that she will get married and, as a tom-boyish, pious, and almost too smart for her own good girl, cannot see a way in which she can fullfil these expectations. In this societal framework, her only other option would be to become a missionary or a member of some religious order. 

The way the Prices and the Kilungans see and react to each other also display differences in their cultural gender roles. We see this primarily through the children as the young girls preform typically female tasks of helping their mothers will cooking or taking care of the children while the boys play games which prepare for them to build and to hunt. The Price women who wear pants are a novel sight for the Kilugans as only their men wear pants. The Prices are equally shocked to see bare-chested women or other forms of bodily exposure.