Barbara Kingsolver Essays (Examples)

Animal Dreams: eal Life eflections of the Effects of Pollution on the World's Fertility
Continued inadequate attention to the world's rivers, lakes and streams will ultimately result to mankind's demise. To ensure the productivity and viability the earth in the future, mankind must start working together to protect the physical environment and ecological processes or face destruction. Government legislation and community action related to this issue up until this point in time have largely been inadequate. More proactive measures are necessary both from governmental officials and community members to significantly change the course of history in a positive manner.

From an ecological viewpoint, of key concern are humankind's natural bodies of water, which historically have nourished and supported human life. In recent years however continual pollution and exposure to environment toxins have diminished the supply and quality of water and life available in the worlds' natural bodies of water. There are no…

Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver. Specifically it will discuss how Kingsolver portrays Native American and Hispanic people in the novel. Codi, the main character in "Animal Dreams," returns to her small hometown of Grace, Arizona, after a long absence. She learns to love her past and her family during her return, and she encounters her high school sweetheart, a Native American who wants to settle down with her. Throughout the novel, Kingsolver portrays Hispanic and Native Americans favorably, and even idealistically, but her writing style and devotion to her subjects make these idealistic portrayals succeed in the novel.
Codi and her family are Hispanics, although Kingsolver never really states this in the novel. It becomes clear as the novel progresses and the culture of Grace becomes known. Their real names are Hispanic, many of the townspeople are Hispanic, and their celebrations are all based on Hispanic celebrations, such as the…

Poisonwood ible," by arbara Kingsolver. Specifically, it will respond to this quote: "Misunderstanding is my cornerstone. It's everyone's come to think of it. Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet. They are what we call civilization."
MISUNDERSTANDING

Everyone lives under illusions of some type of another, and some illusions are absolutely necessary for sanity and the success of civilization. If we truly believed everything in print, on the news, and on the Internet, we would go crazy. Misunderstandings and illusions are necessary to keep a balance in ourselves, and in our society. For example, the illusion, mistaken for the truth, that most politicians are honest keeps Americans voting in elections, and makes them believe that local, state, and national government is still being run by the people, when it is in reality mostly run by the big business special interest groups and lobbyists who wield the most power.…

African-Americans, as members of a group who were forcibly migrated to America are not immigrants, and Native Americans are the original inhabitants of this land. But Chinese-Americans such as Amy Tan, although she is a daughter of willing immigrants to America, also experience identity conflicts. In "Half and Half" Amy Tan explicitly identifies her protagonist Rose as feeling half American, half Chinese in a manner that often makes her feel adrift in the world. Part of this passivity, Tan suggests, is Rose's guilt and self-loathing from accidentally letting her brother drown when she was supposed to be watching him. In the midst of a bitter divorce, Rose eventually reconnects emotionally with her mother and resolves to fight for the house she loves. Asserting her right to a physical homeland in America becomes a source of pride for Rose -- her home becomes her homeland in America, and establishes her right…

As Margaret Atwood points out, Americans have as much to be ashamed of as to be proud of.
When Barbara Kingsolver claims "The values we fought for and won there are best understood, I think, by oil companies," she refers to the way the American flag has been distorted. The issues the flag symbolizes, such as freedom and liberty, are myths for many people. As Kingsolver points out, the American flag has been used to justify many evils including wars like Vietnam and Iraq. Instead of delivering true freedom, liberty, and democracy, the American flag really brought economic dependence. Instead of associating the American flag with negativity, death, and intimidation, Kingsolver suggests that Americans reclaim it. The red stripes do not need to symbolize war. They can also symbolize "blood donated to the ed Cross."

The American flag is a flexible symbol that is often used in ways that manipulate the…

Tender Mercies:
Breakdown and Reconstruction of Characters' Faith in the Poisonwood Bible

In The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver uses Biblical references in part to delineate the differences in her characters' relationship to religious faith as they deal with their father's participation in the estern assault on the Congolese. These differences in levels of faith that her characters experience are Kingsolver's primary method of characterization in the novel. Although all of the characters acquire much of their individuality through Kingsolver's depiction of their differing degrees of faith in God, the Bible and Nathan Price, the voices of Leah and Orleanna Price are particularly marked by their use of Biblical allusions. In the first book "Genesis," Leah believes aggressively in her preacher father's overbearing attempt to bring Christianity to the Congolese. As the narrative progresses, however, her quotes become increasingly ironic, and when she loses her connection to her father, the quotes disappear almost…

5)

The connotations of the word "fungus," which Kingsolver uses to describe the term "want," is one of decay, unwanted growth, and a sort of taking-over by an alien body. Wants spring up unbidden just like fungi, and if left unchecked would swallow the globe. Needs, on the other hand, are described as "few enough to fit in a bucket" and as "dry" and "rattling" things. The first image gives a literal example of needs -- the food and water that could be carried in a bucket would suffice, for instance -- and the dryness suggests a lack of growth and a simplicity; the needs of human beings have not grown or changed.

6)

If survival requires only the smallest bounties of nature, as Kingsolver stresses throughout this essay that it does, tan the few images of beauty that she lists as her means of retaining her grip in her happiness -- and…

And in response to big power lobbying, Senate and House Republicans on the Agriculture appropriations inserted a provision in 2005 into the department's budget, which would allow the use of certain artificial ingredients in organic foods. Many players in the organic industry today also argue that they are willing to use some synthetics in producing organic food. Joseph Mendelson and other advocates of strict organic standards argue that these provisions will open a "Pandora's box," allowing big organic food producers to lobby for further loosening of the USDA standards (arner).
The downsides of big food producers going organic is well-illustrated by the experience of hole Foods Market. It grew out of a small vegetarian store opened by Mackay and his girlfriend in 1978 in a garage in Austin, Texas. In 1992, the company went nationwide, opening stores in several cities. Now, the company owns more than two hundred stores across…

Parent-Child Relationship
Codi has a very complicated relationship with her father. It is not a conventional relationship. Their relationship to each other is renewed after her father falls ill. Her father (Doc Homer) has a different relationship with his daughters. His daughters, hallie and Codi moved out of their father's house when they grew up to adolescents. They both want to lead independent lives of their own. There has always been distance between the father and daughter ever since they were young. Something was lacking in their relationship and that was the only way of making the relationship work.

Their father had always separated them from the rest of the community and not let his offspring discover the true roots of their identity. He does not want to remember his ties to the Gracela valley and tries to forget them. He has never let his daughters reach out to him, which created…