Category: Barbara Kingsolver

Love holds the power to influence the strongest of one’s opinions. Portia de Rossi states that her wife Ellen DeGeneres “has completely changed the way I look at life”. Love is a complex, profound emotion that affects most people in their day-to-day lives. It means having a heartfelt connection with another individual, this is expressed in The Bean Trees and several other articles regarding love. Love can cause a person to form new viewpoints which may push them to take risks that involve sacrifice. It can also bring them strength while pushing away their fears. Kingsolver portrays some of the effects of love in her enlightening novel, which touches the topic of love and risks being interrelated.

Loved ones may influence our perspectives, sometimes to such a degree that we find ourselves taking unexpected risks for them. Kingsolver displays this by building characters whose opinions change as they build new relationships. For instance, when Turtle’s aunt meets Taylor- a stranger who is on her way to a new life- she begs Taylor to “Take this baby” (Kingsolver 18) since the infant’s mother had died not too long ago. Turtle’s aunt plops Turtle into the car without an explanation even after Taylor politely declined her offer. Turtle’s aunt’s love and concern for her niece spurs her to take the risk of trusting a complete outsider (Taylor) just to keep a loved one safe. This proves that love can motivate one to take ludicrous risks for another person. As Taylor continues her odyssey with Turtle, she starts developing a strong friendship with her new roommate Lou Ann. On their way back from a group hiking trip, Taylor analyzes events from earlier that day, “Knowing that Turtle’s first uttered sound was a laugh brought me no end of relief. If I had dragged her halfway across the nation only to neglect and entirely botch her upbringing would she have laughed? … I suppose some of Lou Ann had rubbed off on me, for me to take this laugh as a sign” (Kingsolver 101). It is unlike Taylor, a headstrong character with a strong personality, to experience delight from such a small observation. On the other hand, Lou Ann was fond of interpreting little signs from the universe and Taylor has realized that she may have started to pick up this habit herself. The time that they spent together had strengthened their relationship, displaying that a loved one can influence the way we react to different situations. Another circumstance where a character from The Bean Trees takes an unexpected risk for their loved ones is when Taylor decides “to drive Estevan and Esperanza to a safe house in Oklahoma” (Kingsolver 192). Estevan and Esperanza were a well-liked couple who also happened to be illegal immigrants. Taylor still decided to help them out by taking them to Oklahoma, this was mainly because she had strong feelings for Estevan. The consequences if she got caught helping them were “five years in prison and a $2000 fine for each illegal person I [Taylor] was assisting” (Kingsolver 193), however, these repercussions were not enough to stop Taylor from assisting her companions. She fearlessly puts her life on the line for the people she loves. Walking on ice for someone you love is easy since you already want what’s best for them. Modifying perspectives and taking risks for a beloved, are two of the many outgrowths of love.

Love also involves sacrifice and changes in priorities. An article called Mapping Maternal Instincts, written by Cynthia Epps talks about the steps a new mother takes to ensure that her baby is in a tranquil state. The writer brings recognition to the experiences of a girl named Mariam, who is going through her early stages of motherhood. Mariam describes the changes that she’s facing, “I lost my perspective on my day-to-day reality. I forgot telephone numbers, missed appointments, and skipped meals simply because I felt an urgency to be there for my baby”. Mariam no longer has time for her daily routines now that she has to put someone else’s needs before her own. Her baby influences her life and shifts her priorities from herself to the baby, bringing an overall change in her life. A mother’s love for her child leads her to sacrifice for them. Likewise, Cynthia draws attention to the idea that the mother may even share the pain of her little one. An example of this is when she states that a “newborn’s cry can make you[a mother] feel so acutely uncomfortable. Some mothers of infants recount feeling as if an alarm is going off inside of them” (Epps). The amount of concern a mother has for her child can bring forth powerful emotions like stress and anxiety to the mother illustrating that love can affect your reactions to another person’s uneasiness. This connects to Taylor’s sensations when she sees Turtle in any form of distress, as she has now been introduced to the world of motherhood. To put it differently, love can change our routines and beliefs which may include sacrificing something important to us.

It is equally important to know that the development that originates from love is voluntary and may alter one’s opinions on themselves. This is supported by Dr. Erica B Slotter in one of her articles from Psychology Today. She elaborates about the adjustments one might make to impress another individual, “Essentially, if someone you were interested in was, say, very artistic and you were not, you would alter your views to paint yourself (pun totally intended) as more artistic in the interest of furthering the desired relationship” (Slotter). This doesn’t only apply to romantic relationships, essentially displayed by Kingsolver through Lou Ann and Taylor. People tend to change themselves to draw attention to a common interest that they have with another person, which is typically something one would do for someone they love. The person in this scenario is not being forced to change their opinion for their loved one but instead, is voluntarily doing so. Moreover, we transform ourselves in the hope that their love will be returned. Love can also have various impacts on the way we look at ourselves, “Our romantic desires can prompt us to alter how we define our identities in both positive and negative ways. Importantly, how we see ourselves to start with, via dispositional self-esteem, can influence whether these changes to our identities shift us in positive or negative directions” (Slotter). According to years of research, Dr. Slotter explains that love can affect our self-esteem and the way that we study or perceive ourselves. When you love someone, you are likely to gain their personality traits, usually the assertive ones that we like about them. Love can modify one’s self-perspective, for the better or worse. Love contributes a great amount to one’s mental health, but this can be controlled by us as we choose who to love.

Deborah Huebsch believes that love brings us the courage to face our fears and a sense of tranquility, which is illustrated in her article Love That Keeps Us Safe. When the writer has an unexpected encounter with a strange unknown man in her apartment at midnight, she begins to reassure herself with her love and faith in God, ‘Because God is my Father and is everyone’s Father, this man is my brother. And because we are brother and sister, he could not want to hurt me any more than I could want to hurt him’ (Huebsch). The writer was afraid for her life but her love for God helps her overcome her suspicions and soothes her from the discomfort she initially felt. She believed that this man would not be of any harm to her and knew that God would shield her from any danger that is to occur. The man left her unharmed, which gave rise to her conclusion, that God’s “disarming, protecting love is always with each of us, able to lift fear as well as defuse harmful intentions” (Huebsch). Her love for God was not the only reason that she was saved, furthermore, it was God’s love for her that made God diffuse the stranger’s intentions (This may be a contradictory statement for some). The writer could have been injured or even killed, but love protected her from harm’s way while giving her courage and strength. This is similar to how Taylor relied on 1-800-THE-LORD to pull herself through harder times in her journey, additionally it motivated her and assured her that she has someone to rely on. Overall, love can bring us strength in times of weakness, it gives us hope and confidence to face the troubles of life.

Love has a huge impact on our lives, the people we love can control our thought processes. They can push us to our limits, so we must choose who we love wisely. Love enables us to care for another person to such an extent that we are willing to put their needs before our own. It makes sacrifices seem less of a burden, and instead, more of an opportunity to show affection. The people we love help us feel safe and comfortable, they evoke feelings of happiness and joy to overcome sorrows. The texts of The Bean Trees, Mapping Maternal Instincts, Love that keeps us safe, and Who you love changes who you are, really provide insight into the different outcomes of love. Loving a person can change anybody’s everyday mindset or perspective on life. A person is willing to take risks and make sacrifices for the people they love, regardless of whether or not their love is reciprocated.

Novels can oftentimes be said to be defined by the characters within it. The Poisonwood Bible follows the growth and development of each member of the Price family as they adjust to their new life here. One of the middle daughters, Leah experiences many changes throughout her time in the Congo. Throughout her experiences in the Congo, Leah’s perspective on her devotion to her father and religion changes through her exposure to the new environment and the people she meets, specifically Anatole.

Coming into the Congo, Leah was the daughter who was most devoted to her father, never “contradict[ing] [her] father on any subject, ever” (Kingsolver 66). At the beginning of the novel, Leah tries to keep Ruth May from playing with the younger children by telling her “awful things” such that “a snake might bite her, or that one of those fellows walking by and swinging his machete might just gut her gizzard out” (Kingsolver 106). Leah refuses to join the game and justifies her guilt by reasoning with herself that it is “for [Ruth May’s] own good” (Kingsolver 106). This is similar to when Nathan *inserts a quote about Nathan being condescending. However, as the amount of time she spends in the Congo increases, she becomes more and more aware of her family’s role of the social injustice present in the Congo, quickly realizing the harm her father is doing. Leah begins acknowledging the differences in her and her father’s thoughts as she wonders “how [she would] learn anything of any account to teach others…without college” as her father does not support her pursuing higher education (Kingsolver 150). She continues to question her father more frequently as she is exposed to the new Congolese life, but since she has been dependent on her father her whole life, it is difficult for her to gain her own independence. As the novel progresses, Leah discovers her independence as she becomes aware of the different thoughts and beliefs she has from her father. Leah finally comes to the realization that “all [her] life [she’s] tried to set [her] shoes squarely into his footprints… yet with each passing day [she] find[s] herself farther away” (Kingsolver 244). From that moment on, she is as distant from her father as the rest of the family.

Not only was Leah’s loyalty and feelings toward her father completely changed during the novel, her relationship with God did as well. Throughout the course of the events in the novel, Leah’s faith in the Lord decreases (needs more). Towards the beginning of the novel, heavily influenced by her father, Leah is extremely devoted to her faith even refusing to curse herself “because [she] crave[s] heaven and to be [her] father’s favorite” (Kingsolver 66). Early in the novel, Leah “believ[ed] in God with all [her] might, but [has] been thinking lately that most of the details seem pretty much beneath His dignity” (Kingsolver 37). Leah is seen doubting her religion, but it is not until later that she finally acknowledges these feelings. Anatole additionally helped impact the change in Leah by providing her an understanding of some of the Congolese ideals such as when Leah expressed that “‘children should never have to die” (Kingsolver 231). Anatole responded that “if they never did, children would not be so precious’”( Kingsolver 231). Even though Leah has a different belief from the Congolese way, she is able to understand their beliefs. With each new belief that she learns, Leah doubts her religion even more. After the ants struck the village, Leah completely left her religion as she realized both her and her family’s past ignorance. Every new experience away from her past and join “the inhabitants of this land” (Kingsolver 187). Her ability to develop her own views while understanding others ultimately led her to realize that her “faith in justice was childish” as she “felt the breath of God grow cold on [her] skin’”(Kingsolver 310).

When Leah came to the Congo, she was blindly devoted to both God and her father, but as she immersed herself into the environment, her original beliefs were called into question. Over the course of the novel, Leah realizes that there are others that share different values than those of her father. Because of this, Leah was able to develop into her own individual and eventually turn away from her father and his religion and embrace her own beliefs.

An American novelist, poet, and activist once said: “In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful”. The author’s purpose in writing this essay was to inform and inspire some sort of appreciation for flowers and nature. Kingsolver effectively used figurative language, technical language, and connotation in “Called Out” to inform and inspire appreciation.

The author uses many different types of figurative language throughout the text in hopes to engage the readers and make her argument more relevant and convincing. “This year they predicted gold, but it’s already gone platinum” (Kingsolver 34). Kingsolver uses a metaphor. She compares the flowers growing to an album or a song going from gold to platinum. This is effective in getting the message to the audience because a lot of us know what she means when she says gold to platinum. Making a reference to something the audience knows of already helps the audience understand the point the author might be trying to make. “Our desert hills and valleys were colorized in wild schemes…hues that Crayola hasn’t named yet” (Kingsolver 4-6). The author uses figurative language again when she is describing how colorful the flowers in the desert hills and valleys are. The figurative language that the author uses here gives a different take on the desert which helps readers understand the author’s message that nature has a beautiful process. This is once again effective because it helps the audience envision what the author is trying to convey.

In addition to figurative language, Kingsolver effectively used positive connotations as well to get through with her purpose which was to inspire appreciation. “Miracle” (Kingsolver 17). Connotations set the tone when writing and speaking. When she describes the flowers as miracles you think about magic and that sort of stuff because when you hear the word miracle it creates these positive feelings, thoughts, and images. “Remarkable” (Kingsolver 108). The author describes the plant as remarkable. This

An American novelist, poet, and activist once said: “In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful”. The author’s purpose in writing this essay was to inform and inspire some sort of appreciation for flowers and nature. Kingsolver effectively used figurative language, technical language, and connotation in “Called Out” to inform and inspire appreciation.

The author uses many different types of figurative language throughout the text in hopes to engage the readers and make her argument more relevant and convincing. “This year they predicted gold, but it’s already gone platinum” (Kingsolver 34). Kingsolver uses a metaphor. She compares the flowers growing to an album or a song going from gold to platinum. This is effective in getting the message to the audience because a lot of us know what she means when she says gold to platinum. Making a reference to something the audience knows of already helps the audience understand the point the author might be trying to make. “Our desert hills and valleys were colorized in wild schemes…hues that Crayola hasn’t named yet” (Kingsolver 4-6). The author uses figurative language again when she is describing how colorful the flowers in the desert hills and valleys are. The figurative language that the author uses in here gives a different take on the desert which helps readers understand the author’s message that nature has a beautiful process. This is once again effective because it helps the audience envision what the author is trying to convey.

In addition to figurative language, Kingsolver effectively used positive connotations as well to get through with her purpose which was to inspire appreciation. “Miracle” (Kingsolver 17). Connotations set the tone when writing and speaking. When she describes the flowers as miracles you think about magic and that sort of stuff because when you hear the word miracle it creates these positive feelings, thoughts, and images. “Remarkable” (Kingsolver 108). The author describes the plant as remarkable. This connotation is effective because it creates this image in the reader’s mind that the plants are astonishing and phenomenal which was her whole purpose in writing this essay. Kingsolver’s use of positive connotations throughout the text is effective because it helps her communicate her purpose.

Along with figurative language and connotations, Kingsolver’s use of technical language was effective in expressing her purpose. “…they were stashing away future seasons of success by varying, among and within species…germination, flowering, and seed-set” (Kingsolver 95-98). This example of technical language is effective because technical language is specifically purposed to inform and the author’s main purpose along with inspiring appreciation was to inform the audience about these flowers. “Challenging conditions for an ephemeral…that promise gets broke, that right there is the end of its little life” (Kingsolver 70-72). The author is describing the challenging conditions. This is effective because it provides readers with valid information on the topic. The author’s use of technical language was effective because it communicates more specific scientific information and the purpose was to inform.

Given these points, Kingsolver’s use of figurative language, technical language, and connotation in “Called Out” to inform and inspire appreciation or disclose her purpose were effective. Figurative language helped the audience envision what she was trying to convey, technical language provided readers with valid information on the topic and connotations were effective because it created images in the reader’s mind that the plants were astonishing which was her whole purpose in writing this essay.

Barbara Kingsolver’s (born. April 8, 1955) long fiction is best characterized as contemporary versions of the Bildungsroman with a feminist twist. The main character ventures forth to develop herself and find her place in her community. Many books by women that incorporate such a quest portray punishment for women who explore issues of sexuality or who discover meaningful work in the world. Often these Bildungsromane reiterate a main female character’s struggle with the patriarchal response to her journey, as in The Awakening (1899) by Kate Chopin, or emphasize the price in intimacy and passionate relationships a woman pays for fully developing her skills, as in Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! (1913). In both instances, female writers highlight the tension between an individual and society to suggest women’s dilemmas finding legitimate voices and strengths in their lives and times.

Kingsolver’s work departs from the punitive mold. Tension emerges as her female characters seek synthesis, a coming together that will meld place, memory, and the present moment to create personal identity. Her narratives also orchestrate the play between inner and outer landscapes. In The Bean Trees, Taylor Greer moves across Kentucky and through Oklahoma, landing in Tucson with a baby who will change her emotional geography. On the third page of Animal Dreams, the still mysterious Cosima announces her destination as Grace, Arizona—the site of her early life, stage for the novel’s action, and catalyst of self-knowledge. Pigs in Heaven includes another flight by Taylor and Turtle. Ultimately, it depicts their trek to the deep Cherokee past, which threatens Taylor’s role as a mother and unlocks Taylor’s and Turtle’s ties to their own histories and identities. The Poisonwood Bible evokes the Belgian Congo of the 1960’s in rich detail, juxtaposing it with the southern U.S. landscape of memory and the recent past of Nathan Price’s wife and four daughters. Patriarchy, instead of creating the frame of reference as in earlier fictions, emerges referentially in Kingsolver’s books as part of a female consciousness.

Kingsolver’s women negotiate new places for themselves within their personal, domestic, and social contexts. They acquire self-understanding through social interaction and introspection; these things bring harmony within and without. Her main female characters weather negotiation with themselves and their environments. They display character flaws, lapses in judgment, anger, and personal fears as well as idealism, generous hearts, moral consciences, and affection. Her women reach equilibrium rather than glorious redemption. Their personal insights are fragile in the way that most real-life understandings are, remaining constant only until new discoveries or crises initiate adjustment or expansion. Such shifts do not destroy each woman’s cumulative advancement toward wholeness. Kingsolver’s journeying women increase their poise and certainty at a rate commensurate with their courage and individual learning curves.

Taylor, Cosima (Codi), and the Price women all passionately pursue relationships spawned by family identity. Coming into their own carries an intrinsic connection to family, community, and state. In all Kingsolver’s books, the personal is acutely political. Codi, of Animal Dreams, discovers her true origins as she works with older Hispanic women in Grace to end toxic environmental contamination. Leah, in The Poisonwood Bible, redefines her cultural and religious allegiances as she takes up residence in the “liberated” Congo. Kingsolver’s long fiction is overtly political, her short stories obliquely so. (Her short fiction often focuses on the domestic sphere of women’s lives—situations replete with social and matrimonial expectations dictated by patriarchal values before the revolutions of the 1960’s began to change sensibilities.) Her women live in the real world, and her narratives include male activity in women’s ruminations or the narration of events. Male perspectives surface primarily because they affect the female characters and move the plot forward. The Poisonwood Bible, in which the Price entourage is dragged off to Africa, seems an exception. However, the women tell the entire story of their father’s and husband’s misguided mission, controlling perspective and interpretation.

Kingsolver’s fiction places relationships—between parents and children, spouses and families—in the foreground and sets them against the larger social milieu. Kingsolver gives no credence to the opinion that art is apolitical. The inherent inequities and racism faced by Hispanic, Native American, and African persons surface, not as the chief lament of her main characters or as the narrative frame for their lives, but as elements in their situations.

Marrietta Greer, the traveling woman of The Bean Trees, sees herself as part of life in Pittman County, Kentucky, but she has flair. She leaves town five years after high school graduation in a “’55 Volkswagen bug with no windows to speak of, and no back seat and no starter.” She heads west in search of a new name and new location, believing that mysterious signs will appear to help her along. She takes her new name from Taylorville, Illinois, where she runs out of gas. Deciding to go west until the car stops running, she reaches the “Great Plain,” as she calls it, and finds herself in a broken-down car in Oklahoma. She appreciates the irony of landing in Cherokee territory: Her maternal grandfather had provided the one-eighth Cherokee blood required for her to qualify for tribal membership, and the idea of moving to the Cherokee Nation had become a family joke—their last hope if they face destitution. Before Taylor leaves a Cherokee bar in Oklahoma, a pleading American Indian woman deposits a child in her front seat and drives off. Taylor calls the silent child Turtle because she attaches herself to Taylor anywhere she can get a grip and holds on as fiercely as a mud turtle when it bites. Turtle has been fiercely abused. Chapter 2 introduces Lou Ann Ruiz, pregnant, living in Arizona, and struggling in a failing marriage with Angel. Taylor arrives in Arizona in chapter 3 and, through the auspices of Mattie (a woman who runs Jesus Is Lord Used Tires), Taylor and Lou Ann form a supportive and zany household. The two friends become involved in Mattie’s clandestine work with illegal Central American refugees.

The Bean Trees reorients readers toward daily experience, juxtaposing ordinary picnics, car repairs, and kitchen scenes with such events as the chilling account of Estevan and Esperanza’s daughter being snatched by the Guatemalan government. Kingsolver’s relatively uneducated but compassionate people live mundane lives, but many of their activities focus on the human terms of political injustice. The novel braids the stories of ordinary women following their consciences, and it gives the lie to the idea that massive amounts of money and large organizations are needed to eradicate inhumanity. The novel’s end offers a typical array of Kingsolver anomalies. Turtle is illegally but justly adopted; family has been redefined, and readers accept the safe place that Taylor and Lou Ann inhabit; the politics of safe houses and churches aiding immigrants and refugees escaping crushing cruelty seems noble despite its clandestine nature; and money has nothing to do with feeling cared about and connected.

Cosima (Codi) and Homer Noline share this book in alternating sections that detail Codi’s return to Grace, Arizona, to care for Homer, her physician father, who is succumbing to Alzheimer’s disease. Alternation between an omniscient narrator for the Doc Homer sections and first-person narration for Codi emphasizes postmodern disjunction of perspective, but Kingsolver uses memory to create links between the sections and characters that override the break in form. The personal, communal, and global politics of Animal Dreams are syncopated as well. Personally, Codi discovers her tie to the nine Gracela sisters who founded Grace. She also comes to terms with a baby she had buried alone when she was fifteen. Communally, she connects with the older women of the Stitch and Bitch Club, who alert her to the Black Mountain Mining Company’s toxic presence in Grace. Together they challenge and defeat the corporate polluter. Hallie’s letters from Nicaragua weave the theme of human rights throughout Animal Dreams. As usual in Kingsolver’s fiction, the scenes take place in domestic and familiar public places—kitchens, attics, front yards, schools, and trains—where personal circumstances allow a focus on larger social and political issues. There are no pat answers. An ordinary woman seeking justice dies, but the Stitch and Bitch ladies triumph. Codi moves toward a full life. All Souls Day and the Corn Dance rituals unite the past and present and provide time for Codi to seek and find answers. Animal Dreams articulates the complicated intersection of private and public identities and offers hope.

Pigs in Heaven revisits Taylor and Turtle’s lives. They are on a road trip visiting Hoover Dam when Turtle’s glimpse of a near-fatal fall that involves a spectacular rescue makes celebrities of Taylor and Turtle. Notoriety brings the Cherokee Nation into the story, and soon Taylor is traveling to keep Turtle from being “repossessed” by Cherokee lawyer Annawake Fourkiller. Taylor maintains telephone contact with her mother, Alice, and lives hand-to-mouth while avoiding Ms. Fourkiller. To expedite matters, Alice travels to Oklahoma to reestablish her tie with a Cherokee cousin. She falls in love with an American Indian man named Cash Stillwater. Telephone calls and negotiations result in Taylor and Turtle meeting with Annawake, Cash, Alice, and the Child Welfare Services. In a bizarre twist, Cash turns out to be Turtle’s grandfather and proposes to Alice. The solution of joint custody and Alice and Cash’s determination to be married unite everyone with their pasts, both deep and recent.

Chapters in Pigs in Heaven establish irregular intervals between Taylor and Turtle’s adventures and accounts of Taylor’s mother, who is beginning her own road trip away from her second husband as the novel starts. Taylor runs until she must return to Oklahoma, and Alice travels to Cherokee ground to reunite with her cousin. Throughout, Kingsolver relies on the threads of Cherokee blood, Alice and Taylor’s telephone calls, and the history of the Cherokee Nation to bind the plot lines. She employs a style that combines an omniscient narrator in equal parts with dialogue and with sequences that seem to be half narrated and half in the voice of the character under consideration. The ritual Cherokee stomp dance and the U.S. government’s mistreatment of the Cherokees make readers consider how the past carries forward as both repetition and renewal.

In The Poisonwood Bible the ill-fated Price women follow two men, a husband and their father, to the Belgian Congo just as fighting for liberation breaks out in earnest. The Bildungsroman in this case involves the simultaneous creation of five separate journeys to the self within the framework of the family’s African journey. The book is an ambitious undertaking, as Kingsolver creates the voices of six-year-old Ruth May, twelve-year-old twins Leah and Ada, and fifteen-year-old Rachel Price. She then follows them to adulthood (all but Ruth May, who dies of malaria), through the tumult of Congolese revolution and U.S. manipulation.

The surviving sisters fare better than their parents do. Leah marries the universityeducated Congolese rebel who was her teacher and remains in the country. Her thoughts outline the Congo’s grinding poverty and the sheer energy it takes to survive in a society preyed upon by a colonial power and then by capitalist interests. Ada becomes a doctor, and Rachel runs a hotel for the Europeans who remain in Africa fomenting unrest. Ironically, she, the most self-centered and resentful daughter, comes closest to emulating her father despite her financial success. Orleanna Price returns to America a drifting and unsteady shadow of herself.

After his family escapes, Nathan Price sinks into madness and wanders wildly for years. Kingsolver provides an intimate portrait of the stupidity of Nathan Price; his attempted exploitation of the Congolese stands as a metaphor for the plundering of the Congo. Rich details of landscape and tribal culture, including the traditional philosophy that shapes Congolese life, surface through the disparate voices of the Price girls. The tragedy of the Price family’s lives, the ruin of Congolese tribal structure, and the breakdown of national order are concentric circles. The failure of private communication within the Price family and between the Prices and their African neighbors both prefigures and contributes to the failure and destruction of an ancient society in a ruthlessly short period of time.

In this 2000 novel, Eddie Bondo and Deanna Wolfe share a love of nature, and they begin their interlude as lovers before he even knows her name. Deanna is a Forest Service employee serving as a resident biologist-ranger overseeing a section of the Zebulon National Forest. She has a deep knowledge of the people and ecology of Zebulon Valley and a stake in the wildlife balance, which she suspects that Eddie will threaten.

Then readers meet Lusa, Cole Widener’s “over-educated” wife whom he brought back to his family’s farm from Lexington, Kentucky. Lusa and Cole fight about her unwillingness to mix with local people, and Cole feels the sting of her idea that the world they inhabit is stultifying. Her Arabic background and her love of moths and insects set Lusa apart from the family. Cole defends his people and the ways of farmers, as well as his closed-minded family, when Lusa tries to tell him her problems. Cole’s accident while driving a grain truck for Southern States changes Lusa’s life forever and adds another point of conflict with the family, since she inherits the farm.

The third pair of antagonists, Garnett Walker and Nannie Land Rawley, tussles over whether to spray weeds along Highway 6. She is afraid that the toxins will drift onto her organic apples, and he wants the spraying done to protect his chestnut seedlings.

Kingsolver considers this her most difficult novel, as the issues being considered are more important in the book than the characters themselves. She has said that it has no main character and encourages readers to look beyond the tensions of the human interaction. Over the course of the novel, the five chief characters remaining after Cole’s death explore their sexuality in relationships, through memory, and by reputation. Their relationships prompt talk based on ideas like those found in T. R. Paine’s work on keystone predators. The effect of removing even one such predator from an environment is profound, upsetting the fragile ecological balance beyond repair. All the human tensions in the novel relate in some way to balance and the sensible use of the land, as well as respect for all living things. The novel reminds readers that their interdependence with nature is inescapable.

Difficulty pertaining to the acceptance of cultural differences is a prevalent motif throughout “Poisonwood Bible,” and is an idea that Kingsolver routinely reinforces through the implementation of allusion. The Price family, though having left Georgia to complete a religious mission in the Congo, attempted to maintain the cultural practices of a modern society, which eventually proved to be unsuccessful. While attempting to plant a garden upon his arrival in Kalinga, Nathan proceeded in using Western planting techniques, despite having been cautioned by a native woman. He disregarded her warnings and his garden was ultimately destroyed. Leah witnessed this demonstration of defiance and unwillingness to adopt African practices and observed, “He stood his ground, my father, tall as Goliath and pure of heart as David” (Kingsolver 40).

Leah’s statement referenced the Biblical story in which, a young man, David, conquered a giant, Goliath, in battle. Nathan regards himself as “David,” a single man attempting to reform the entire way of thinking regarding Christianity in Kalinga, his “Goliath.” In this instance, despite believing wholeheartedly in the correct nature of his ideology, Nathan was unable to overcome the “Goliath” that is the Congo through Western practices alone, as demonstrated through the flooding of his garden, as well as his Poisonwood rash; regardless, he refused to adhere to Congolese culture. Furthermore, Orleanna too struggled to adapt, but more so in terms of leaving behind the conveniences of modern amenities that were readily available in the United States. As she attempted to bake Rachel a birthday cake from a box from Georgia, she realized that the humid environment solidified the mix making it impossible to properly prepare. In the notice of the cake mix’s solid appearance, Leah revealed, “In the powerful humidity, the powdered mix got transfigured like Lot’s poor wife who looked back at Gomorrah and got turned into a pillar of salt” (65).

In the book of Genesis, angels ordered Lot to leave his city. Lot’s wife looked back as she was leaving and was turned into a pillar of salt. Orleanna intended to “look back to” familiar practices and to maintain as close to an American lifestyle as was possible. American tradition, however, was unable to survive the trials of a Congolese lifestyle, and American products were often turned useless which was used to warn against constant looking to the past. Kingsolver strategically incorporated the aforementioned Biblical references to reveal that despite having been immersed in an entirely new culture for which traditions have been shaped to conform to the Congolese way of life, the Prices, primarily Nathan, remained attached to Western culture, believing it superior to any other.

The standard of living varies greatly between Africa and the United States. In the Congo, mounds must be formed in gardens to prevent flooding due to heavy rainfall, and boxed food is ineffective as a result of the more extreme climate. The Price family must repeatedly realize through circumstances of trial and error, that several aspects of Western culture do not translate effectively into Congolese culture and environment. The entire family exhibited a great reluctance to stray in any way from what was familiar. A great irony was revealed through these allusions as the Prices were clearly hesitant to incorporate aspects of Congolese culture, yet forced their own cultural practices onto the local people as a result of their mission. Nathan’s misunderstanding of many parts of Congolese culture, primarily as a result of lackluster effort, influenced the effectiveness of his mission. He was unable to truly overcome the cultural barrier in order to get across to the people, which was partially revealed through his attempts at gardening. Slowly, the Price family began to give into the Congolese way of life, with Nathan building the mounds and Orleanna cooking using native ingredients and adjusting to limited household resources. However, thus far, members of the Price family continue to hold on to Western culture rather than completely acknowledging the importance of Congolese culture not only to their own survival but to the nation’s people as well.

This was an odd moment for me to finally get around to reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer, which has been waiting on my bookshelf for ages. Bursting with energy and appreciation for all living things, the book reminds me that I am not a farmer, that I am not a naturalist––not in the true sense of those words, anyway. It offers a snapshot of my former ambitions that, for whatever reason, did not motivate or entice me in the way I thought they might. Even so, I had no trouble enjoying the scenery while traipsing through this smart and artful novel.

Kingsolver, one of America’s finest contemporary authors, has never quite managed to knock my socks off, but her books always impress me and make me think about myself and the world in valuable ways. Prodigal Summer, which takes place in rural Appalachia and is comprised of three overlapping narratives, is no exception. First we meet Deanna, a highly-educated Forest Service employee who has spent the last couple years living alone in the woods. Deanna loves ecology and is a generally disdainful of humanity’s tendency to disrupt and destroy the natural world. Our second protagonist is Lusa, a city girl who finds herself unexpectedly widowed and suddenly in charge of her late husband’s farm, with his entire extended family looking anxiously on. Finally, there’s Garnett, a grumpy, conservative septuagenarian who spends his days trying to resurrect the American chestnut tree and arguing with his saucy neighbor. Predictably, these three storylines start out as discrete threads, but become increasingly interwoven as the novel progresses.

At its core, Prodigal Summer is about one thing, and one thing only: sex. I’ve never read a text so unabashedly brimming with sexual imagery and sensuous excess. There’s nothing lurid or depraved about Kingsolver’s exploration of this theme; on the contrary, this novel is an empowering and poetic paean to the glory of sexual reproduction. As the title suggests, the story unfolds over the course of a single summer, a “season of extravagant procreation” in which “the collisions of strangers” generate new and intoxicating mixtures of emotions, ideas, and –– of course –– genes. “There was no engine on earth,” Kingsolver writes, “whose power compared with the want of one body for another”. Sex, she teaches us, makes an incomparable contribution to evolutionary robustness, even as it also creates a landscape of genetic diversity in which some individuals are dealt a losing hand: There’s nothing so important as having variety. That’s how life can still go on when the world changes. Variety means strong and not so strong, and that’s just how it is. You throw the dice…It’s the greatest invention life ever made.

As Kingsolver fans will expect, Prodigal Summer also includes long discussions about whether humans are somehow separate from nature or an intrinsic part of it, as well as politically-tinged debates about the economics of farming, the dangers of pesticides, and the ethics of hunting. Some of these are tiresome and don’t feel as fresh as they probably did when the book was published two decades ago; I personally am less sympathetic to Kingsolver’s point of view than I would have been as a younger man. There’s a fair amount of appealing to nature going on here, but not so much than it ruined the book for me. In particular, Garnett represents a nice attempt to get inside the perspective of someone from a previous generation who balks at the newfangled methods of “the damned hippies” who see nature as inherently harmonious. He’s a bit of a stereotype, but also a vivid and strong character in his own right.

Despite my resistance to some features of the worldview presented here, I’m still on board with Kingsolver’s general goal, which is to stubbornly contextualize human activities and aspirations within the diverse dance of earthly life and the greater cosmos that contains it. Humility is called for, early and often. Death is nearby, and not worth lamenting more than is necessary to confront and process our grief. Birth and rebirth are always imminent. I’ll let her have the last word: Solitude is a human presumption. Every quiet step is thunder to beetle life underfoot, a tug of impalpable thread on the web pulling mate to mate and predator to prey, a beginning or an end.

The American writer, Barbara Kingsolver is a poet, novelist, and essayist. The political activist was born in Annapolis, Maryland in 1955. Her writings are mainly based on the survival of people in harsh and unreceptive environments. However, she manages to dig out the hidden beauty of life in even such circumstances.

Kingsolver dedicates most of her works to environmental concerns and social justice for the people. As she ascribes importance to these subjects, her works often become successful in gaining the attention of the world. However, she does not only follow the issues of everyday life in her works.

Kingsolver, in real life, is also devoted to her values. For example, she established the Bellwether Prize for the unpublished works about ‘social change’.

Since 1993, Kingsolver’s most of the writing has become The New York Times Bestseller list. It is because she writes about biodiversity and human connection with others and the environment. Her two most praised works include “The Poisonwood Bible” and “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”.

The first novel is about a missionary family who moved to Congo on a health delegation. While “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” is Kingsolver’s non-fiction work about an effort of her family to eat local food for almost a year.

Writers Digest entitled Kingsolver as one of the most notable 20th-century writers. She also received some major prizes for her notable works. For example, she won the Dayton Literary Peace Price in 2011. She also got the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2010 in the UK for “The Lacuna”, and the National Humanities Medal.

She had also been nominated for the most coveted awards, the Pulitzer Prize, and PEN/Faulkner Award. Now she lives with her second husband and daughter in the mountains of Southern Appalachia and Southern Arizona.

Barbara Kingsolver, one of the leading English writers, was born in 1955 in Annapolis, Maryland. She also spent some of her childhood in Carlisle, Kentucky. At seven years of age, Kingsolver moved to The Republic of Congo with her family. As her father was a physician, her parents worked in the public health sector in Africa. The family lived there without basic facilities like water and electricity.

When Kingsolver finished her school life, she got admission to DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. There, she studied Classical Piano on a music scholarship. However, due to huge competition for 6 seats of classical pianist jobs annually, she changed her subject to the biology major. She also took part in activist movements on her campus and was a leading figure in protests against the barbarism of the Vietnam War.

She completed her graduation in the oldest academic honor society, Phi Beta Kappa with a science degree in 1977. After graduation, Kingsolver shifted to France to live for a year before going to Tucson, Arizona. In Arizona, she lived for about twenty years of her life. She got admission to the University of Arizona in 1980. At Arizona University, Kingsolver got a master’s degree in the subjects of evolutionary biology and ecology.

In the mid-1980s, Barbara Kingsolver began writing for her university as a science writer. Due to her science background and her love for writing, she became attracted to writing for the public. Within some time, she extended her writing career to freelance working. For example, she wrote cover stories for the local paper, Tucson Weekly. However, when she earned distinctive success in a short story contest in a local Phoenix magazine, Kingsolver formally set her journey of writing literature.

Kingsolver, after the beginning of a successful literary career, in 1985 got married to Joseph Hoffman. Moreover, she gave birth to her daughter, Camille two years after her wedding in 1987. Later, Kingsolver left Virginia perhaps due to the first Gulf War and American involvement in it for almost a year and moved to Tenerife, Canary Islands. However, she came back in 1992 to the US and the couple parted their ways forever.

In 1994, Kingsolver got married for the second time to an ornithologist, Steven Hopp. She gave birth to her second daughter, Lily, in 1996. They lived in Tucson for seven years after the wedding. In 2004, the family took residence in a farm in Virginia, Washington County to live there for their remaining life.

In 1994, the DePauw University, Kingsolver’s alma mater, honored her with the Doctorate of Letters, the year she married Hopp. Later, in 2008, she delivered a speech on “How to be Hopeful” at Duke University where she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.

Kingsolver claims that she abhors fame the most. In an interview with The New York Times in 2010, Kingsolver declared that she never craved popularity. She always “dreaded the most” to be famous. However, she was rewarded with it. She also highlighted that her making of a personal website is just to defend herself and her family from fake news and scandals.

Kingsolver’s first work of fiction came when she was pregnant with her first child in 1988. At that time she was fighting against insomnia. In the story, “The Bean Trees”, a young lady moves from Kentucky to Arizona. While on her journey, she adopts a lonely child and settles in Arizona with her.

Kingsolver’s writing continued through 1989 also, when she wrote “Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike”. It was a non-fictional work about women’s struggles against a mining organization due to its biased policies.

In 1990, she wrote the novel “Animal Dreams” in which a psychologically isolated and disconnected lady meets moral challenges after returning to Arizona, her hometown. In 1992, she wrote, “Another America”, a collection of poetry in which deprived women raise their voice against violence, abuse, and death.

In 1993, Kingsolver composed another novel, “Pigs in Heaven” which was the continuation of her first novel, “The Bean Trees” in which the protagonist tries to justify the adoption of her daughter, a Native American. Furthermore, Kingsolver presented some other works before the end of the century i.e. “High Tide in Tucson” in 1995.

In 1998, she wrote, “The Poisonwood Bible” which turned out to be one of her most celebrated novels. In the novel, Kingsolver depicts the condition of the wife and daughters of a Christian Baptist during their missionary stay in Africa. This novel hints at Kingsolver’s biographical elements. She also moved to Congo due to her father’s public health mission there. In this story, Kingsolver moved from limited setting to extended geography and represents the redemption of the family in the struggle for freedom of the colony.

Then Kingsolver moved on to “Prodigal Summer” in 2000. In the novel, she created a deep interrelated connection between nature and humans through the setting of Appalachia. In a way, Kingsolver’s life and her movement to different locations played a vital role in the development of her creative literary works. Furthermore, the setting she uses in her works is always based on her deep knowledge about the places.

In 2009, “The Lacuna”, a historical fiction, got published. It narrates the tale of a novelist who makes a kinship with Leon Trotsky and Frida Kahlo who were later presented for a trail during the anti-communist movement.

This novel was awarded the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2010. Later in 2012, Kingsolver gave us “Flight Behavior” about the effects of global warming on monarch butterflies and the community’s reaction to it.

Likewise, another successful work, “Unsheltered”, came in 2012 in which Kingsolver depicted the impact of cultural change on two families living in Vineland, New Jersey. They lived in the same house; however, there was a century difference between their stay in the house. For instance, one family lived there in the 1800s while the other after the time of Hurricane Sandy. Still, they suffered from the effects of cultural distinction.

She also wrote about science subjects and published certain journals in publishing papers like Economic Botany. She mostly wrote about environment, bio-resources, and desert growth.

In 2007, Kingsolver composed a non-fiction work “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” about her family’s experience to eat local, farm food for a year. In the story, she highlighted the use of natural foods as a way of existence and focused on the result of consumption on the environment.

In April of 2005, Kingsolver and her family made an effort to produce and consume as much local food as they can. They sowed vegetables and raised livestock on their farm in Virginia. They also made cheese and stored much of their harvest for future use. Later on Kingsolver, her husband, and elder daughter preserved their experience in the non-fictive work of art.

In her writing, there is a blend of cultural values with hope and courage in their veins. These qualities are the effect of her optimistic and resilient approach towards life in general. It is because of Kingsolver’s exposure to different cultures from her childhood, as she lived with the black and the white people.

Her most important feature of writing is an empathetic feeling towards every kind of readership. For example, in “The Poisonwood Bible”, there is an exposure to African culture and a sense of “otherness”. As Kingsolver lived in Congo for some part of her life, there is a blend of Southern culture and a foreign African culture that imparts a universal dimension to her work.

Her setting is also mostly based on real places she had visited or lived in. They include Arizona and Congo. Even though Kingsolver negates the autobiographical elements in her fictive works, she inevitably used her personal experiences and real locations in her stories.

She writes about what she feels significant to pen down and what she satisfies her first. In this way, Kingsolver becomes one of the most appealing English writers of this century.

Kingsolver composed her work in a poetic way with humor intertwined in it. Her realism combines lyricism to create a timeless impression of artistic unity. She describes the moods and feelings of characters in exact detail.

For example, in “The Bean Trees”, Kingsolver describes the physical surroundings of Lou Ann and Taylor as “a little senile, with arthritic hinges and window screens hanging at embarrassing angles . . . transformed in ways that favored function over beauty.” This presents a diffusion of seriousness and humor in vivid imagery.

She served as a guest editor for the stories collection The Best American Short Stories 2001 volume. Being one of the celebrated writers, her articles have circulated among the prestigious newspapers of the US. Likewise, her works of art have been a part of several academic curricula and other courses in the educational institutes. Moreover, her works have been converted into many languages and are read worldwide because of their relevance to the lives of average people.

Critics often call Kingsolver’s work as art of activism. She highlighted many political and social issues in her works actively and even worked for them in her real life. For example, her non-fiction “Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983, 1989” tells about the political differences and partiality between the two genders.

Her work also contains realistic figures and events traces and love for the natural world. For example, in “Unsheltered”, Kingsolver portrays two real-life figures, Mary Treat and her husband, Dr. Joseph Treat. They moved to Vineland in 1868 and Mary had shared study research about the history of nature with Charles Darwin. Unfortunately, the couple fell apart because her husband left Mary for another woman in New York.

The story is about how people act in a situation when their world seems to be falling apart. It depicts the realistic situation of a failing social life in natural surroundings. The point of view that Kingsolver applies in her works is usually first-person or third-person. Through this kind of narrative, she gives her stories a realistic shade and connectivity with the readers.

Kingsolver’s females are sensitive and active women who invade their everyday lives with a strong approach towards their existing situations. For example, “The Lacuna” is about a happily married life in which there are certain harsh realities but the overall tone predicts the strong role of a woman in life. Most of Kingsolver’s works are about grave matters of social life with harsh situations and dilemmas; however, there is a tinge of freshness and humor in her art. Furthermore, Kingsolver does not only portray one nation or culture.

In her works, Kingsolver highlighted the social, political, and environmental struggles of a common lot of society. For example, she wrote about the relationship between nature and man, and the impact of humans on their ecosystem, a worker’s life, women’s struggles, social justice, and single parenting. Kingsolver once famously said, “I don’t understand how any good art could fail to be political”.

She also wrote about historical issues in a captivating way for the common readers. For instance, her experience on the struggles of Congo for liberation from their colonizer masters is also depicted in an engaging way for the readers e.g. “The Poisonwood Bible”.

Kingsolver took a great step in the foundation of the Bellwether Prize for fiction in 2000. Through this prize, she intended to appreciate those writers whose unpublished works could cause a social change in life. She wanted to encourage justice, positive change, and goodwill through literary writings. This prize pays USD 25,000 for the chosen work for highlighting social issues and confirms its phenomenal publication.

Furthermore, the PEN American Center in 2011 took charge of the management of the prize and entitled it PEN/Bellwether Prize. Since 1998, the prize helped in emerging lots of talented literary figures and made their successful careers.