The Poisonwood Bible - Major Characters

Major Characters

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 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-centred, 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, tenacious and compassionate. 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 Maths 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 – New Yorker, the Prices' predecessor on the mission. Married to a local woman.
• Mama Tataba – a village woman, formerly employed by Fowles and who works for the Prices.
• 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.