Hairspray and Poisonwood Bible...

by: Jenna Anthony

The question: How was Leah and Antatole’s relationship affected by their different races?

            So if you haven’t read Poisonwood bible, one of the main themes of the book is the relationship between Leah, a white American, and Anatole, a black African, which during the 60s,when the book took place, was a big NO-NO.   Some other need-to-know background info is that Leah is one of four sisters brought to the Congo by her missionary father, and falls in love with a local teacher who speaks English (Anatole).  So basically, the book is just a really terrible rom-com that has no comedy. 

        Louie Bellson and Pearle Bailey http://www.soulfulplanet.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?

     So if you’re still a little confused, basically mixed couples were a huge problem.  If you’re anything like me, all I could think that had to do with interracial couples in the 60s was the movie Hairspray with Zac Efron and that girl from The Amanda Show (Amanda Bynes), so I had to do a little research.  With that, I learned about Peal Bailey and Louis Bellson. They were pretty similar to Leah and Anatole- at least situation wise- and they had a long marriage. One huge problem was that there were a lot of lies to friends etc.  Even though there weren’t lies within the relationship, lying in general around relationships is never a good thing. While it might take a lot of strength to keep the relationship going through all the discrimination, it also takes a lot of lies. From personal experience, when people start lying, bad things start happening.

            Hairspray.http://collider.com/entertainment/article.asp/aid/4803/cid/13/tcid/1

But don’t take my word for it; even psychology bloggers say that there is huge divide between interracial couples. Even today, there is a huge cultural difference that normally causes couples to not understand each other on the level required to keep a lasting relationship. And that’s just today- think about in the 60s.  Plus the fact that Anatole is from Africa and Leah is from America- that is a huge cultural difference.

So why did Kingsolver add in this seemingly useless relationship into the novel? If you’re thinking that she just put it in there to make a terrible book even worse, so am I, but that wasn’t really where I was going.  She adds this relationship to show Leah’s change. Leah went from the good girl who never did anything wrong to a girl who is in a relationship which at the time, was completely unacceptable. Kingsolver wants to show just how bad Leah is. So does Leah really love anatole? Nope! She probably is crushing on him, but mostly because he represents something she’s not supposed to do, so it makes him more enticing.

            Leah and Anatole have just about everything going against them. There are lies, and a huge cultural difference that makes their relationship guaranteed to be filled with drama- not something I want to deal with in a relationship- and probably keeps the relationship at a deep crush, not real love. Plus, Leah is crushing on Anatole because the color of his skin makes her a bad girl.  If the book were to be set in this time period, it might be a different story, and she might really like him, but because of setting in the 60s, the relationship becomes all about how bad she can be. The only reason Leah and Anatole stayed together the whole book was probably because Anatole was in jail for half of the relationship. Terrible right?  I told you this was just like a rom-com.