I still don't get why people don't like Animal Dreams. It makes me mad. The novel was so beautifully written it nearly brings me to tears when someone says it's a stupid book.
I had to read the book in tenth grade and I thought it was one of the coolest books I've ever read. In tenth grade we focused a lot on the archetypes within the novel. There were so many comparisons of people to animals. Kingsolver often used characters to describe the actions and behaviors of characters. The use of archetypes made the novel very rich and gave it a deeper meaning. I love that the book includes the animals because it is a very different element than what I have read in other books.
Kingsolver also mentions bones throughout the book. The way I interpret the use of bones within the novel is that it is a way to connect us all to one other. By the end of our lives, bones are the only remains of us that stick around, and that is true for humans and animals. The bones in the novel are a constant reminder of our place in the world and that we are all similar.
What I found most interesting in the book was the theme of instincts. Throughout the novel Codi constantly feels that she doesn't have a place to belong. Everyone else around her has a calling or a natural place in the world and Codi would give anything to experience that feeling. The story includes the use of animals and their natural behaviors and instinctual abilities that Codi longs for. The message that everyone has a place where they belong is a very powerful statement. Codi is devastated and lost without her sister, who often acts as a leader for Codi. Hallie is the closest thing Codi knows and feels at home with her. Hallie has always been driven, something that makes Codi extremely jealous. Throughout the novel, Codi is forced to find her calling in life and figure out what she is meant to do. Codi notices throughout the novel that many of the animals she sees around her are moving as if they had a predetermined path mapped out for them.
I feel strongly that this book can connected to many freshmen students here at Wartburg because of the theme of vocation. We are all young students trying to figure out what we are to do with our lives and are often under immense pressure. I think we can all learn from the book if we actually take the time to read it and not judge it.
So all the kids in our class are really lame for not liking it.
Well, we are all entitled to our opinion! What I have found interesting in reading the blogs is that students discussed how much they hated the book on first read but have come to have more of an apprecation after our discussions and writing their papers.
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