A Study of Barbara Kingsolver’s Writing Style
...the end, and I would be stunned with guilt because my mind had wandered in to crickets and pencil erasers and Black Beauty.”(p. 6). This unique writing style allows the theme to come across without being too frank, but also without saying it in an elaborate and intricate way. This perfect style creates a memorable theme that illustrates insight of the complexities of human nature. The relationship between mother and daughter can be one of the most wonderful and challenging parts of someone’s life. Sometimes this special relationship is created early on in a daughter’s life, but it sometimes isn’t shaped until later on in life. Barbara Kingsolver looks at these two different mother-daughter relationships in her short stories. Her ability to relate to this subject is evident in her style of writing. She writes two contrasting short stories that show completely different versions of mother-daughter relationships. In one story a mother-daughter relationship is born when a child is still too young enough to see the complexities of this special relationship. Kingsolver again uses her simple but meaningful style by setting the entire story in the car during a conversation between the mother and daughter. The mother realizes how precious time is with her daughter and drives the car around the block for a while just so they can talk for longer. “They are repeating their route now, passing again by the Burger Boy…” The style of setting this story with an average family just running errands makes the mother-daughter theme more relatable. Some mother-daughter relationships can go through hard times, but can then resurface later on in life. Kingsolver expands on the mother daughter theme in stories that tell about rocky relationships. The style Kingsolver wrote these stories in is straightforward and insightful. Readers can tell from her style that Kingsolver has first hand experience with this kind of relationship. In the story “Survival Zones”, a mother-daughter bond is created later on in life, but possibly too late. The mother states, “By the time they ask you what they ought to do…you’re too old to tell them…”(108). Kingsolver writes these stories so that everyday people can relate to the characters and the challenges they face. The unique writing style that this story are written in compliments her theme of mother daughter relationships very well and creates beautifully written stories that average people can recount to. There are times in every person’s life that they come to a fork in the road and need to make a decision of which direction to go in. These life choices can dramatically change the course of what will happen in the future. Some people make these decisions impulsively while others slowly think them through and weigh out all of the options. Kingsolvers uses her one of a kind style to write stories about people, mainly couples, who have come to a point in their lives when they need to make important decisions about their future. This theme of life choices really compliments Kingsolvers writing style. Her ability to write about average people really sets the tone for the life choices theme. Everyone at one point in their life has to make a life choice and Kingsolver can truly communicate this in her style of writing. An example of a story with people making a life choice is “Covered Bridges”. In this story the theme of life choices is evident and is communicated in Kingsolver’s unmistakable style. The couple in the story has reached the point of their lives where they are making a decision to have children. This theme compliments the refreshing and down to earth style the story is written in. The couple is dealing w...