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Book 3, Chapter 41
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Poisonwood Bible, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Freedom, Growth, and Coming-of-age
Religion and Faith
Women and Sexism
Race, Racism, and Culture
Imperialism
Summary
Analysis
After Rachel’s birthday, Axelroot visits her and takes her for a walk to keep up the appearance that they’re engaged. Axelroot makes Rachel laugh by joking about Rachel’s sisters, and he mentions that Adah spies on her from time to time. He offers Rachel a Lucky Strike cigarette, and Rachel smokes it, laughing. Axelroot claims he can get Rachel cigarettes any time she wants.
Axelroot knows perfectly well that he has a lot of power over Rachel; he can get her to do things for him because he’s keeping her secret from Tata Ndu. There’s also definitely an attempted seduction going on here.
Themes
Axelroot and Rachel walk by a large group of women returning from the field. Axelroot flirts with them, calling them “ladies of Kilanga.” This offends Rachel, and she tells herself never to forget that Axelroot is a “creep.” Axelroot tries to apologize, but this makes Rachel even more annoyed.
Axelroot apologizes, but he also knows he doesn’t have to hide anything from Rachel—he most of the power right now, so Rachel has to continue spending time with him whether he flirts with others or not.
Themes
Axelroot changes the subject to politics. He tells Rachel a secret—Lumumba, the Prime Minister, is as good as dead. He will be assassinated very soon, and Axelroot will have “orders” to perform immediately afterwards. Rachel is confused about Axelroot’s explanation, and can’t help but feeling sorry for Axelroot, as she assumes he’s exaggerating to impress her.
For the time being, Rachel seems not to grasp how powerful and well-connected Axelroot really is. In part, this is a product of her narcissism—it’s easier for her to believe that Axelroot is obsessively trying to impress her than it is to believe that he’s a powerful CIA ally.
Themes
