Week 8--Literary Interpretation

Pollan and Kingsolver tend to agree on evolution/natural selection, the interconnectedness of every aspect of the natural world and that human's role as an omnivore shapes who we are. Pollan tends to focus on the ethics and effects that humans food choices have on the natural world wheras Kingsolver addresses the animal-like urges and instintual apects of human nature especially related to sex. Does anyone have more imput on how Pollan would interpret Prodigal Summer? Ann? Peter? Any suggestions?

For my paper, I'll be examining Garnett and Nannie through Hyde's lens of the "trickster" character.  At first Nannie seems like she's the trickster, but Garnett is often fooled by his own misreadings of ambiguous figures (Nannie).  Still, it is not fully correct to say that Nannie doesn't embody the qualities of a trickster at all, but it is possible that they are a construct of Garnett's mind.  Also, Garnett has poor vision, and so his vision could be an aspect of him that has trickster characteristics.  Garnett is pretty much his own trickster, resulting in hilarity such as shoplifting chemicals and false-alarm strokes.

I plan to write from Lewis Hydes perspective and annalyze the Lusa, Deanna and Garrets choices throughout the book. What their individual methods for choosing goals and satisfying appetites . Why they make choices based on these needs or wishes. How the context or setting of a situation effects choice. I also want to focus on the seperation of goals, why they are so different. And how the interaction of story lines effects this.

I plan on writing my essay this week on the conspicious similarities between Prodigal Summer and the Yellow Woman story. In the novel, many of the characters were women, and they were women that lived alone, whether by choice ( in the case of Deanna), or through unfortunate circumstances such as in the case of Lusa after Cole's death. The Yellow Woman's story, according to our reading, "highlights her alientation from the people" or a "woman who refuses to marry". The behavior of women is described as being unconventional or non-conforming in the Yellow Woman Tales, and I think that most of the behavior of the women seen in the novel coincides with this idea. For example, Lusa, through staying at the Widener farm is essentially going against the will of Cole's family, however her willingness to love and accept Jewel's children as her own highlights the "Role of a woman"' and accentuates the characteristics of what can be seen as a role model - an idea that is highly praised in Yellow Woman tales. Again, Deanna's desire to live her life on own greatly portrays the Yellow Woman ideal of self independence.

I like the way the Kingsolver novel plays with each character's perceptions of villainry. Are coyotes a threat to the farmer, is the modern aggressive farmer a threat to the ecosystem (and thereby himself), is the Widener family hostile toward Lusa or vice versa, etc.? Beyond the buckets of misunderstanding, each character speaks as if they are choosing the most moral path, while in reality they may simply be choosing the lives that best suit them and weaving a justification after the fact.  If this is the case, they are all tricksters to some extent, primarily tricking themselves. My question then becomes: which is better, to be an unwitting or intentional trickster?  I'll argue the latter, although our society tends to assign sinister qualities to these folks (not without reason, although perhaps narrowminded/short-sighted-ly).

I think Hyde's trickster and Kere's Yellow Woman (nature's aide between itself, the seasons and mankind) are both manifested in the characters of Prodigal Summer. I would like to focus on Deanna's character through the lens of Hyde, taking into account his notion that tricksters, despite all cleverness, are capable of being tricked and that they have also been shown to learn from their mistakes.

I will write my paper on the predator prey relationships in the novel Prodigal Summer as well as in Hyde's interpretation, specifically focusing on the fact that the trickster is one step ahead of the prey. I will analyze who "wears the pants" in each relationship, and how the role of women as continuing the species or picking up the projects left by men is a fundamental principle in ecology.

Also, the idea of scabs creating appetite has caught my attention. Is it possible that each character's development arises from overcoming their own woundedness and their hunger for a normal/better life is caused by their personal tragedies/incompleteness? 

After reading Hyde's interpretation of the archetypal trickster character as seen in various cultural contexts I have decided to write my paper on Kingsolver's incorporation of the trickster character in the form of the coyote and the predator prey relationship that evolves between Deanna and the coyotes she is tracking. I think it will be interesting to determine who really acts as the dominant trickster, Deanna or the coyote clan, because both possess the qualities of trickster as Hyde describes the character. Also, I am curious as to why Kingsolver chose the coyote over the raven as the physical animal embodiment of the trickster in her novel. 

The Prodigal Summer emphasizes balance and i want to discuss that using Allen's perspective on balance in the Keres Indian tale. The tale seems to be fitting for one of the stories in Prodigal Summer (winter vs summer seasons and love vs coyotes, organic vs. green, etc).

I'm going to do my paper by interpreting Lusa's dream about making love to her husband, a moth.  In the paper I'm going to try and interpret from anthropologist’s point of view. To step out of my opinions, but use other facts to prove if she would or would not make the choice of sleeping with a moth if she was conscious, and that it was not a drea.