My Most Common Annotation

        You can really tell a book I enjoyed apart from another by sheer amount of excess black ink on the pages. Underlines, squiggly underlines, brackets, squiggly brackets, arrows, exclamation points. But the most prevalent marking, inked onto every other page, almost, of Barbara Kingsolver's novel The Poisonwood Bible was a word: sexism. Prevalent in the novel in both cultures depicted is an underlying inequality between the sexes, but also four strong women who defy them.
        It is evident in the way education is approached that women are not given the same opportunities or value as men. In Kilanga, there is simply not the option for women to go to school, as only boys up to age 12, usually, enroll and receive education. However, in America, the obstacle for girls to receive an education is the prejudices that western culture still held. Father Price well embodies these misconceptions, claiming that higher education for a woman is a "waste." Adah goes on to prove him wrong, excelling in both college and medical school ad becoming a highly successful and honored doctor. Leah, too, earns a college degree, which she puts to use helping others in Africa.
        Instead of becoming educated, women were expected to marry and be good housewives, a custom which three Price women did not honor. Orleanna Price fits most loosely into this category, herself being a wife and mother for most of her life. However, her heart was never truly present in her marriage and eventually neither was she, as she leaves her husband in the jungle and returns home. Rachel Price, who so looked forward to being the ideal wife, who made the most extravagant hope chest, also did not find her place as a wife. She married multiple times, but each lasted less time than the next. She was never a traditional housewife, either, as she married men for their money or power, or both. Oppositely, though, Adah never married, though she, too, found no happiness with a husband.
        Though Leah did marry, she found other ways to defy the restrictions placed on women in both societies. She learned to shoot an arrow as well as any man could, and fought to participate in the village hunt. The deep prejudice against women was evident by how many were so deeply enraged by this, however that did not stop Leah from overcoming it.
        Kingsolver even writes at one point that the girls of Kilanga seem to run the village.With all the boys running around playing, the girls are raising children, cooking, cleaning, going to the market every fifth day,and managing the households. It is true that without their work, the village would fail. No one seems to notice how valuable they actually are.