barbara kingsolver prodigal summer summary

This ecocentric perspective is summed up in the maxim: 'A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. The ecosystem, a holistic entity, has value over and above, and in most cases more than, the value of its individual components. Ecocentrism, Hunting, the Biotic Pyramid, and Exotic SpeciesĪldo Leopold's Land Ethic is famously holistic and ecocentric. Garnett's goal is to cross-fertilize chestnut trees to create an American chestnut that is immune to chestnut blight. Cole dies early in the novel and Lusa tries to save the family farm.įinally, Nannie Rawley is a senior citizen who grows organic apples nearby and has conflicts with her more senior neighbor, Garnett Walker, who wants to kill weeds with chemicals to keep his property looking neat. Lusa is an entomologist who taught at the University of Kentucky before marrying Cole and moving to his family's tobacco farm that adjoins the national forest where Deanna works. Īnother story features Lusa Landowski and her husband Cole Widener. She has just discovered that coyotes have arrived, but so has Eddie Bondo, a handsome man from the West who hates coyotes because they sometimes kill livestock. Forest Service in a wilderness area on Zebulon Mountain where she restores trails and impedes illegal hunting. One story features Deanna Wolfe, who has spent the last 25 months working for the U.S. Prodigal Summer tells three interconnected stories that take place from May through July one year in contemporary rural Kentucky.

The present paper selectively displays this relationship, and then suggests some pedagogical advantages of fiction. the community as such.' 2 Barbara Kingsolver explains Leopold's key ideas and updates the Land Ethic by showing how it might guide people today. In this case the message corresponds to Aldo Leopold's call for 'a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it.' People should 'respect.

Like many good novels, Prodigal Summer's 1 account of love, tragedy, conflict, and choice in human relationships conveys an overall message about how life should be lived. The Land Ethic in Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer Peter S. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Įthics & the Environment 8.2 (2003) 106-125

Barbara kingsolver prodigal summer summary