Reader's Choice:
I'm curious to hear your reactions to Prodigal Summer. What passages would you like to talk about? What interests you? What questions would you like to pose? Use this post as a chance to have an input in the direction of class discussions.
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I enjoy reading Prodigal Summer because it is a story. The people, Lusa, Mr. Malker, and Deanna are interesting characters. I feel bad for all of them for the struggles in their life. I feel that each of them turns to nature to help them cope. Deanna completely secluded herself from human contact, and follows animal droppings. This is disgusting but interesting. She seems to have gone a little crazy, and seems to be too insecure to interact with humans after her husband left. I feel pitty for Mr. Walker, who turned into a miserable older man that seems to preoccupy himself with the hate of his neighbor. My favorite character is Lusa. She is strong willed, and I feel terrible for her loss. Her husband’s family is a little crazy. The most interesting part of the book to me so far has been their obsession with bugs and plants. It states that Mr. Walker is obsessed with chestnuts. Lusa is obsessed with her moths, and Deanna likes her coyotes. All of these objects resemble their personalities. Mr. Walker is obsessed with chestnuts, which is ironic because he seems to be going a little “nuts” himself not being able to drive and forgetting his grocery list. On page 68, Barbara Kingsolver says, “Using binocular vision, we judge the location of an object by comparing the images from two eyes and tracking directly toward the stimulus. But for species relying on the sense of smell, the organism compares points in space, moves in direction of the greater concentration, then compares two more points successively, moving zigzags toward the source,” (Kingsolver, 68). This quote makes two points. The first is that people judge objects with their eyes, which many people are judging Lusa on her coping mechanisms with her husband’s death. They also judge her upbringing and way of life. This quote also relates to Lusa by comparing her to a moth. She sees matters differently. She goes in a zigzag way to reach the same point of information. Deanna is related to the predator. She enjoys coyotes, and knows a lot about nature, like the other characters. However, she differs by her dominant nature. She tends to be by herself, and has a strong personality. I thought it was interesting to look at the animals or objects in nature that correspond to the characters. It was an interesting take on studying the environment.
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