Animal Dreams Essay

In the story of Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver, the main character named Codi had her struggle towards her relationship with her younger sister Hallie. Regarding this, this article tends to explain why such struggle of closeness towards their relationship turned into closeness which is seemingly far and thus inclusion of the relationship changes are discussed. The goal of this paper is to provide a reliable detain of research regarding with the explanations of the story’s relationship changes between the two sisters Codi and Hallie and thus to give an explanation about the themes of the story such as to what it depicts and why it is of importance. Relationship of Codi and Hallie Codie and Hallie are very close to each other since they are the only children of Dr. Homero Noline; they both lived in Tucson Arizona where they are bonded with Codi’s boyfriend Carlo. The sister’s relationship changed a lot when Hallie decided to move from Arizona going to Nicaragua and since Codi felt that there’s no reason for her to stay at Arizona because her sister already left, Codi then decided to go back home where they spend their early life (Kingsolver). Continuing the story, the sister’s relationship went on along even if they are far from each other. They still write a letter for one another in order to inform each other about the events and changes which are happening in their lives. Eventually, Codi gets too busy with her work as a high school teacher at Grace and busy visiting her father who by then is on the first stage of psychological disease. The relationship of the two sisters went stronger when Hallie was reported missing and that she could not be found because she was kidnapped (Kingsolver). Similarities of Codi and Hallie The main idea of Codi and Hallie’s similarity is that they both have concern with the environmental issue such as doing something in order to influence the other people and thus to make them realize how their place are being ruined by the pollution and that the administration just seemed to ignore such problem. They are both doing an act towards the pollution issue which made them oppose the administration; Hallie by involving herself in movement which uses certain farming techniques that depict the difficulties of the farmers of their place at Grace in farming due to the lack of supply of water for their planted trees and Codi by helping the Stitch and Bitch Club through a fund racing activity wherein the fund will be used for projects toward environmental protection and or environmental problem resolution (Kingsolver). The Themes Fertility Fertility throughout the story gives an emphasis towards Codi’s situation in the novel wherein she lost her child twice. This part of the novel was written by the author in order to open the readers’ eyes about the essence or importance of having a future baby because bearing a child simply means the generation of a new group of people for a certain community and for the continuous movement of life and history from the past towards the present through the new generation (Kingsolver). Fertility as the theme of the story wanted people to realize that it is not purely a medical or scientific matter and thus in order for a certain person to regenerate a new offspring, she must know how to take care of the life which lies inside her. Fertility in the story is also depicted as a matter as important as preserving a certain generation or community wherein it is subjected to an issue of getting extinct or the threat to a community’s existence (Kingsolver). The importance of fertility in the novel wanted people to realize that preservation of life for a new generation of people is important and thus a new life could serve a new hope for every problem’s resolution. In the novel, the womb of a certain mother is symbolized by the Graceland and the baby in it is symbolized by the environment and environmental resources which are at the risk of being totally destroyed. Mainly, Fertility means saving the environment in order to preserve the place or the earth is depicted by preserving the child inside mother’s womb in order to generate a new offspring (Kingsolver). Fertility changes in the story when Codi lost the child that she bears inside her as it was also depicted in the place’s situation when Grace is in the verge of slowly dying because of the pollutants which are present and are mixed up in their agricultural place and in the whole environment. Children’s Importance In the story, children’s importance is explained to as; they are the ones who will continue the legacy or history of a certain family. A child also symbolizes the difficulties and sacrifices of the parents most specially the difficulties of the mothers who tend to bear a child and give birth. Children are the one who will pursue the conviction of their parents as it was depicted by Codi who was supposed to be a doctor just like his father but eventually dropped out of school because of her being pregnant (Kingsolver). Children are depicted to as the fulfillment of dreams and hopes for the future as it was symbolized by the presence of children in the story hence they are sometimes being disregarded as to taken advantage of wherein in the story; Codi disregarded her situation of pregnancy wherein she did not take care of herself but instead did all what she ought to do which led her to loss the child which she carries inside her. Codi’s Pregnancy/Miscarriage Cody got pregnant at the age of 15, she never told anyone about her situation because she didn’t want Hallie and her father to loose her closeness towards them and so she kept the secret into herself but she did not know that her father observed her and that Mr. Noline knows that his daughter was pregnant. Because Codi was careless about her own body, she lost the baby wherein she really hoped for it to be gone and thus she once dreamt of losing the baby from her womb (Kingsolver). Codi’s being careless regarding with her fertility can depict two certain premises which could frame her in the story. The first premise is the death of her beloved mother and secondly is the death of her own child inside her womb. Through interpreting the character of Codi in the novel regarding her pregnancy, a certain reader could correlate her to destruction of a new seed of life because for Cody; loving someone is also losing which explains that when a certain person loves someone or anything, he or she will loose his or her control towards his or her emotion and thus she will be hurt when that person or matter he or she loved will be lost from his/her possession (Kingsolver). Political Part of the Novel The real purpose of the novel by Kingsolver is to depict the situation of a certain place in America wherein the land is said to be a fertile land which is good for planting and/or farming which is eventually ruined by the miners producing water pollutants from the mines going to the places’ body of water which tended to destroy the richness of the land. This novel depicts the year 1950 when copper manufacturing mine is one of the most important resource of such Native Americans (Kingsolver). Kingsolver depicted the political system of the United States during the year of 1980’s by narrating the situation or Nicaragua in the novel. Nicaragua was stated as the largest State in the central part of America wherein on the year 1979 a certain socialist group named the Sandinistas along with the FSLN or the National Liberation Front in the United States joined forces in order to overthrow the dictator system of Anastasio Somoza which reigned for over 46 years. After the dictator was overthrown, the FSLN executed a socialist kind of government wherein they made all the major industries nationalized during that period and thus they executed a certain reform, agrarian reform, in order to give help to those small farmers and in order to support such industries of farming (Kingsolver). The FSLN also made a program which strengthened the system of education and other important programs such as health care management and regarding this, the CIA, unknown by the socialists, established a plan in order to oppose the goals and management of the socialist groups and leaders (Kingsolver). Conclusion The novel by Kingsolver entitled Animal Dreams is what the author used to express the reality somewhere in the Central part of America wherein the agricultural management is disregarded by the government and thus the environment is polluted by the mining manufacturers. This novel symbolizes the true event of the Central America by narrating the Grace’s problem about the environment and it’s near to destroyance wherein the Sandinistas can be seen in the character of both Hallie and her sister Codi. Through the novel, the author makes readers realize that preserving a child’s safety while it is in the womb is like preserving the safety of a threatened environment wherein when the mother does a small mistake then the baby will die without being born and just like the environment’s situation, one mistake or wrong deed from the people and the environment or the earth as a whole will die or will be destroyed. Work Cited Kingsolver, Barbara. â€Å"Animal Dreams. † HarperCollins, 1990.