Ruth May Price Character Analysis in The Poisonwood Bible

The youngest of the Price children, Ruth May is a plucky, adventurous five-year-old when the novel begins. The chapters narrated from her point of view tend to be short and to-the-point, as there are many times when Ruth May can see, very clearly, what the older and more experienced characters in the book struggle to understand. For much of the novel, Ruth May is dangerously ill, since she refuses to take her malaria pills. Just when she seems to be regaining her health, she’s bitten by a snake, and dies suddenly. Ruth May’s untimely death sets in motion the events of the second half of the novel: Orleanna’s flight from the Congo, Leah’s powerful sense of guilt, etc. In the novel’s Epilogue, she’s presented as a spirit, looking back at her family with love, wisdom, and affection.

Ruth May Price Quotes in The Poisonwood Bible

The The Poisonwood Bible quotes below are all either spoken by Ruth May Price or refer to Ruth May Price. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Freedom, Growth, and Coming-of-age Theme Icon

God says the Africans are the Tribes of Ham. Ham was the worst one of Noah’s three boys: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Everybody comes down on their family tree from just those three, because God made a big flood and drowneded out the sinners. But Shem, Ham, and Japheth got on the boat so they were A-okay. Ham was the youngest one, like me, and he was bad. Sometimes I am bad, too.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 20

Explanation and Analysis:

The boys said, “Patrice Lumumba!” I told Leah that means the new soul of Africa, and he’s gone to jail and Jesus is real mad about it. I told her all that! I was the youngest one but I knew it. I lay so still against the tree branch I was just the same everything as the tree. I was like a green mamba snake. Poison. I could be right next to you and you wouldn’t ever know it.

Related Characters: (speaker), ,

Page Number and Citation: 124

Explanation and Analysis:

Ruth May Price Character Timeline in The Poisonwood Bible

The timeline below shows where the character Ruth May Price appears in The Poisonwood Bible. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...Rachel jokes with Adah, her sister. When the family disembarks in Leopoldville, Leah’s younger sister, Ruth May , faints. She revives very quickly, but the incident disturbs Orleanna. (full context)

Ruth May Price begins by reciting something her father taught her: the Bible argues that the Africans... (full context)

Ruth May describes how black people back home in Georgia conduct themselves: they’re forced to attend different... (full context)

...outnumbered: there’s a huge crowd in the street. She feels a wave of sympathy when Ruth May , who’s only five years old, faints. Rachel thinks to herself that Ruth May is... (full context)

...crowd, Rachel takes a good look at her siblings: the twins (Leah and Adah) and Ruth May . Adah is shorter than Leah because of her “handicap.” Together, the Price children are... (full context)

Leah watches as her sisters explore their new home. Ruth May is scared of the neighbors, claiming that they’ll eat her alive. Rachel claims that she’s... (full context)

Ruth May notices the children in her new home. They have strange names and, in spite of... (full context)

Ruth May considers her other neighbors, like Mama Mwanza. Mama Mwanza’s house burned down several years ago,... (full context)

Ruth May reports that Rachel has become badly sunburned. Nathan thought that being in the Congo would... (full context)

Ruth May remembers her father’s rocking chair back in Georgia, a chair that only Nathan was allowed... (full context)

...knowledge of their own language. She also wishes she had friends to play with. Eventually, Ruth May finds other children to play with. Leah notes that Ruth May is amazingly strong-willed for... (full context)

One day, Leah returns from spying on Axelroot to find Ruth May playing “Mother May I?” (a children’s game) with a group of young Congolese children. One... (full context)

Ruth May breaks her arm while spying on the “African Communist Boy Scouts.” To begin her story,... (full context)

Ruth May slips and falls out of the tree after the Jeune Mou-Pro march by. She’s able... (full context)

Nathan flies with Ruth May to the nearest reliable doctor, as Axelroot flies them out of the town in a... (full context)

Back in Kilanga, Ruth May nurses her injured arm. She notices that the Belgian Army shares territory with the “Jimmy... (full context)

Ruth May reports that she tried to see Nelson naked. When Nelson gets up in the morning... (full context)

Nelson tells Ruth May that the people of the village have “one foot in the church and one foot... (full context)

...Axelroot to pick up more quinine pills (necessary for treating diseases like malaria). Rachel, unlike Ruth May , is careful to always take her pills—she’s too vain to risk catching a disease. (full context)

Ruth May reports that Nathan and Leah flew away “on the plane.” This isn’t Axelroot’s plane, but... (full context)

Ruth May describes lying down with her mother and looking at the world sideways. As she lies... (full context)

...cut off the Prices’ stipend, leaving them wanting for food. At this time, Orleanna and Ruth May become sick and feverish. Nathan ignores them, however. He just continues with his preaching, leaving... (full context)

After some three weeks, Leah manages to get Ruth May out of bed, in spite of her sickness. Leah reads books to Ruth May and... (full context)

...all of what he said. With this, Anatole bids Leah farewell, and Leah returns to Ruth May , who seems listless and tired. Leah realizes that there’s a very real chance that... (full context)

Ruth May is confined to bed, where she has feverish dreams about black children playing with her... (full context)

Ruth May wakes up from her delirium and sees Nelson sitting in front of her. Nelson tells... (full context)

While Ruth May continues to be sick, Orleanna gets better. Leah wonders if she’s accidentally made Ruth May... (full context)

Ruth May (who’s been feeling better lately) greets “Mr. Bird” with curiosity. Bird is calm and thoughtful.... (full context)

Before Fowles leaves, Orleanna asks him about Ruth May ’s fever. Fowles admits that there are few good doctors around, but Celine suggests that... (full context)

Ruth May ’s condition gets worse once again, even though she’d been improving immediately before Reverend Fowles’s... (full context)

Meanwhile, Ruth May isn’t doing well—she has horrible rashes all over her body. One day, the Prices are... (full context)

Ruth May isn’t sure if Rachel is going to marry Tata Ndu or not. She’s heard that... (full context)

Orleanna insists that Ruth May take her malaria pills. Ruth May has been avoiding taking the pills because she finds... (full context)

...bracelet. Rachel thanks Orleanna, but is dismayed when Orleanna then returns to taking care of Ruth May . (full context)

...is bangala,” but he pronounces “bangala” in such a way that it means “poisonwood.” Meanwhile, Ruth May makes a quick recovery from her disease, and yet Nathan seems strangely indifferent to the... (full context)

Ruth May describes the scene in the village: everyone screams as they run away from the ants.... (full context)

Ruth May and Orleanna reach the river, where they see Adah. Orleanna moves to talk to Adah,... (full context)

...however, she was able to wake up and move away just in time. Orleanna carried Ruth May out of the house, saying that Nathan had already run out. Adah tries to keep... (full context)

...the river, noticing that Anatole is behind her, carrying Adah. He explains that Orleanna and Ruth May have gone ahead with Tata Boanda. Rachel, Anatole says, is a “demon,” and Nathan is... (full context)

On the day that the CIA condemned Lumumba to die, Ruth May was feverish and Rachel was turning 17. The CIA told Mobutu that he would have... (full context)

It’s been a tough couple of months for the Prices, with the drought, Ruth May ’s illness, and the ants. Lately, Leah has also been unimpressed with Nathan’s enthusiasm for... (full context)

...the forest. Adah joins some of the elderly women, who carry ceremonial torches. Orleanna and Ruth May also walk along, surveying the hunters’ progress. Men light most of the forest on fire,... (full context)

The hunt ends, and the villagers celebrate by dancing and shouting. Ruth May is scared of the celebration and hides in Orleanna’s arms. Meanwhile, a few of the... (full context)

Leah, staring at the chicken house, hears a sudden gulp—it’s Ruth May , who’s secretly been climbing the trees above the chicken house. Ruth May falls down,... (full context)

Adah notes that she was not present when Ruth May was born, but she was there when Ruth May died. She sees her little sister... (full context)

Rachel has just learned from Leah and Adah that Ruth May is dead. Rachel, as the eldest child, decides that she will tell her parents of... (full context)

...the last year pretending that her life in the Congo isn’t real. But now that Ruth May is gone, she can’t pretend anymore—her sister’s death brings home the shocking reality of her... (full context)

Leah describes how Orleanna takes the news of Ruth May ’s death. She’s eerily calm, as if she already knew what had happened. Nathan’s reaction... (full context)

...making a “funeral arch” out of leaves. Leah and her sisters pray to God for Ruth May ’s soul, mostly out of habit. It begins to rain, and Nathan stares out at... (full context)

...that her grief will follow her wherever she goes. She once had a daughter named Ruth May , and now she doesn’t. Ever since her child’s death, she’s been trying to “stay... (full context)

...his post in Kilanga for any reason. In the last few months, since just before Ruth May ’s death, Leah has grown much closer with her mother than her father. Leah imagines... (full context)

...that she must have “done something right,” as she didn’t die in the Congo, like Ruth May , after all. (full context)

...17, the anniversary of the day on which the Congo lost its newfound independence and Ruth May lost her life. (full context)

...works as a secondary school teacher. Yet Leah carries the memory of her little sister, Ruth May , deep inside her. (full context)

...legendary “five wives” must have been a reference to the rest of his family: Orleanna, Ruth May , Adah, Leah, and Rachel. (full context)

...Orleanna tells Adah that not a single woman in Georgia has ever asked her how Ruth May died, or about Nathan the “crazy evangelist.” Adah only says, “I despised him. He was... (full context)

...her to be still. She describes a scene: Orleanna leading her four children—including the youngest, Ruth May —through a forest, until their movements disturb an okapi. The narrator explains that because of... (full context)

...scene—Orleanna leads her three children through a market. They have come to say goodbye to Ruth May , but also to say goodbye to Orleanna, who’s quite old, herself. The narrator reports... (full context)

Orleanna sees a man who’s about the age that Ruth May would be if she’d survived her snakebite. As Orleanna thinks about this, the narrator explains... (full context)

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Ruth May Price Character Analysis

Ruth May Price Quotes in The Poisonwood Bible

Ruth May Price Character Timeline in The Poisonwood Bible

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