Balance

        Father Price is so sure that one will be rewarded in accordance with their toils, but Kingsolver's novel The Poisonwood Bible is riddled with injustices and hardships, it almost seems as though there is no fairness in the world. Kingsolver does, however, offer an alternative type of balance in the world as an accord between all living things, humans, animals, plants, bacteria, and everything- without any holding higher power over another. 

      The Baptist belief of justice is simple and understandable, yet seems too good to be true. He tells Leah, "God created a world of work and rewards" (37), where reward or punishment is doled out in accordance with one's efforts or failures. However, though this belief is held by a religious man, it is not consistent wth the Bible; the book of Job, in attempting to explain why bad things happen to good people, comes to the conclusion that it is not because of anything they did or didn't do. Bad things just happen to good people sometimes. Father Price's view that everyone will get what they deserve in the end is just not accurate.

        Kingsolver offers another explanation for balance in the world which is that every living thing works together to keep this balance. She shows how Africa maintains this balance: multitudes of bugs carry diseases which, however unpleasant, prevent human overpopulation, humans hunting keep the animal populations in check, and so on. Nothing tries to upset nature's delicate balance. When doctors come in with vaccinations and good intentions, they cured the diseases, but gave way to overpopulation and starvation, and wrecked the natural accord. Adah, during her career as a medical professional, recognizes the system nature has to always work things out. She feels like she is upsetting the natural balance and withdraws from practice. She comes to the realization that the world maintains its own natural balance; to interfere, to vaccinate or treat diseases can lead to worse things than were cured.