Dellarobia's Evolution
One thing I found interesting about Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Flight Behavior is how Dellarobia’s true feelings about her life and marriage are slowly revealed throughout the story. At the beginning of the novel, Dellarobia is climbing up her family’s mountain to meet another man and throw her current life away. This rebellious behavior caught Dellarobia off-guard at first and “her betrayals shocked her” because she was unsure of why she felt like running away (Kingsolver, 8). Kingsolver uses the mass of butterflies on the family mountain in order to help open Dellarobia’s eyes and ultimately lead her to a more fulfilling life.
Dellarobia feels trapped by motherhood. Before
Dellarobia accidentally got pregnant at 17 and was forced into marriage, she
had imagined big plans for herself that involved trying to go to college and
make something of herself. However, once Dellarobia was married and had two
kids, people minimized her, and she felt the weight of “people automatically
estimating a mom’s IQ at around her children’s ages” (84). Dellarobia found herself in a vicious cycle of
only taking care of her kids until Ovid Byron came to study the butterflies and
offered her a job. Additionally, Dellarobia feels trapped by her geographical
circumstances because in Feathertown “college is kind of irrelevant” and not
something people within her town have the means to accomplish. Dellarobia working
with Ovid and the butterflies is the root of the breakdown in her and Cub’s
relationship. Cub is against Dellarobia working outside of the house because he
feels as though it is a reflection on him as a man and he does not want someone
else raising their kids.
The first sign that Dellarobia is thinking about breaking
away from her marriage is when she opens a bank account in her own name that
Cub is unaware of (293). Dellarobia gains traction in her new job, and she
begins to find herself again. Dellarobia has always been a good student because
of her curiosity, and this is evident by the “small, encrypted notes [she
wrote] to herself” in her lab notebook during her time at work (244). Secondly,
a conversation with Hester is the turning point that helps Dellarobia come to
terms with the runaway feelings she has felt her entire marriage. During this
conversation, Hester is blunt by saying Dellarobia “had one foot out the door”
throughout her entire marriage with Cub (346). At first Dellarobia is upset by this
but sees that an outsider has known how she felt all along.
Dellarobia’s conversation with Cub at the Dairy Prince
allows her to finally break free from her unfulfilling marriage because she vocalizes
that Cub is unable to give her what she needs. All the events in the book build
on top of one another to build the foundation for Dellarobia to leave her
marriage, begin her life again in Cleary, and start college.
Great blog post! I think your title did an amazing job framing your post and gave me a clear view of what you were going to discuss. This post is valuable because it brings representation to the struggles of becoming a divorced women in a small town. I really like how you focused on Dellarobia feeling “trapped in motherhood”. I think another point you could make about Dellarobia’s situation is explaining why she felt trapped into marrying Cub and having children with him. In a conversation with Dovey, Dellarobia is asked “[a]fter the miscarriage, why not just walk” (Kingsolver, 193) to which she explains that she had nowhere to go, no family to turn to. I think that this statement could be added to your explanation of how she was forced into marriage to help people understand that she didn’t have any other support system which made marriage feel like her only option. I think that this is important because often in small communities’ people blame the woman for wanting a divorce. I think that by including this point in your blog post you could help readers feel empathy for Dellarobia. This would help them see things from her past perspective which could help readers put themselves in her shoes which could help them not blame Dellarobia for leaving her marriage and starting a new life at the end of the novel.
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