Codi in Animal Dreams
... In the novel Animal Dreams, the author Barbara Kingsolver told the story of Codi and her trip back to Grace, Arizona. Codi returns to her hometown where there’s nothing to fulfill her restless lifestyle. ... This was Codi’s attitude towards Grace and every other town she lived in. The fact that Codi grew up motherless and with an overprotective father didn’t help her fit in. Her father continually told Codi and Hallie, her sister, that they weren’t from Grace but rather from Illinois. One of the people that Codi got to know well is Loyd Peregrina. He was one of Codi’s high school flings and throughout the novel he helped her recognize that she was wanted and needed in Grace. When Codi gets to Grace, things changed and she realized that she did belong in Grace after all. In the past, Codi was forced to wear orthopedic shoes as a child. ... For this reason, Hallie and Codi had different shoes from every other child as they grew up. ... Codi reminisced, “People here would remember our unreasonable height in seventh grade” (13). Codi was content in believing that the only thing people noticed about her and Hallie was their shoes and height. ... Near the end of the novel, Codi finally realized that she was wrong. When Hallie died, Codi asked the all the townspeople to bring something that reminded them of her to the funeral. As Codi’s eyes moved over all of the toys and memories she noticed, “each one of these fifty mothers who’d been standing at the edges of my childhood, ready to make whatever contribution was needed at the time” (328). ... When Codi learned of this, she gained a stronger feeling of belonging to Grace. Loyd played a huge role in helping Codi begin to accept the fact that she belonged in Grace. Loyd and Codi’s relationship started out very casual but ended up in marriage.