21st Century Fiction 2024

In Flight Behavior , author Barbara Kingsolver walks a fine line between science and religion, illustrating how rural communities interact with nature and their attitudes towards science, especially when it conflicts with deeply-held religious beliefs. Kingsolver takes a tentatively optimistic approach to the intersection of science and religion in such communities, which is seen through Dellarobia’s curiosity and role as a bridge between the scientists and other townspeople. Her devoutness may be questionable at times, but it’s worth mentioning that Dellarobia is a Christian woman, though she differs from many other religious community members in how she embraces science, even when it tells her things she doesn’t want to hear. Dellarobia’s role as a bridge between these groups suggests that Kingsolver believes that open-mindedness is essential to science and religion’s ability to coexist with one another. This belief is especially evident after Dr. Byron’s first dinner with the Turnbo...

 Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Flight Behavior follows Dellarobia’s first exposure to higher academia and scientific thought—concepts that are rare in her rural hometown of Feathertown, Tennessee. White, poor people in rural areas, often labeled as “rednecks,” are a demographic whose portrayal in American media is frequently negative. “Rednecks” are typically looked down upon as uneducated and as holding ignorant views on issues like climate change. However, Kingsolver’s portrayal of the white rural American family adds depth and context to this group, challenging simplistic stereotypes. She presents white rural poor people as complex, multi-dimensional characters. Kingsolver particularly does this through Dellarobia, who is curious and open-minded. Her journey becomes a testament to how individuals within rural communities can hold nuanced perspectives on global issues, while highlighting the constraints poverty places on access to resources and opportunities. “Rednecks” are often d...

  The migration pattern of butterflies is closely followed and explained to Dellarobia throughout Flight Behavior, written by Barbara Kingsolver. Due to global warming, butterflies’ existence is limited as they rely on the consistency of Earth's climate to survive and propagate. However, the seemingly helpless butterfly is used by Kingsolver as a representation of hope—the hope that humans will stop harming the Earth. Within the novel, this hope is showcased through Dellarobia’s change of heart after seeing the butterflies and the butterflies surviving the snow in Feathertown. Dellarobia’s epiphany occurs during her first encounter with butterflies, while she is traveling through the woods to commit adultery. Within this moment, Dellarobia thinks to herself that the butterflies “looked like the inside of joy” (15). Considering this thought, Dellarobia realizes that if she continues her trek up the mountain, the destination will lead to only minutes of pleasure and her life torn ...

Media; the Informational Anti-Hero Kingsolver's Exploration of the Impact Media Has on the Spread of Misinformation Kingsolver explores the nuances of digital media throughout Flight Behavior . She does not adopt a strictly negative or positive outlook, instead acknowledging the media’s impact on our society and its potential benefits and limitations.  Kingsolver illustrates that digital media can help the public understand complex social issues through widely accessible information. Dellarobia was subject to an education system that neglects academics, for instance, with “footballers teaching sports in place of science class” (Kingsolver 224). Nevertheless, Dellarobia is able to learn about the monarch butterflies that descend in their backyard through Google. She would not have been able to satisfy her curiosity without this resource due to their community’s lack of focus on academia. Additionally, Kingsolver shows how videos that go viral can, purposefully or not, bring attentio...

In her novel, Flight Behavior , Barbara Kingsolver shines a light on a crucial but often overlooked factor in fighting climate change: the importance of bridging the gap between those who believe in it and those who don’t. Throughout the story, Kingsolver explores how differences in education, wealth, and religion shape people’s beliefs about climate change. She points out that without understanding why people think the way they do, efforts to address climate change could just lead to more polarization. The novel highlights both effective and ineffective ways of getting people to care about climate change. For example, Ovid’s frustration with a reporter who implies that scientists are uncertain about climate change shows how unproductive it can be to dismiss opposing views outright (Kingsolver 368). Similarly, Leighton’s conversation with Dellarobia is ignorant and inapplicable because he doesn’t realize that Dellarobia can’t afford to eat out or buy red meat and gas (327). As we learn...

  Thrown into an environment that is failing due to excess precipitation, the Turnbow family is left to act within their own self-interest and cannot afford to think of the environment before their financial hardships. On top of their monetary difficulties, no members of the family are educated enough to understand the environmental effects that cutting down the trees on their property would have. Dellarobia herself was initially concerned only with the appearance of the property following the lumber job, stating “They’ll make it look like a warzone,” naively ignoring the more crucial costs to the environment and local habitats the logging would bring as well (Kingsolver 40). Due to their social status and rural, poverty-ridden town, it is easy to understand why the Turnbow’s take the environment into zero consideration when deciding how to save their farm from being foreclosed.                 Following h...

       In the novel Flight Behavior, Barbara Kingsolver delves into the details of climate change, personal identity, and the collision of science with faith. The novel, centered around Dellarobia Turnbow, describes Dellarobia’s discovery of an extraordinary “miracle”—a massive congregation of monarch butterflies. This unique occurrence disrupts Dellarobia’s mundane life and the larger ecosystem around her. Through Dellarobia’s journey, Kingsolver raises an important question: Can science and faith coexist for a brighter future? In Flight Behavior , Barbara Kingsolver explores the intersection of science and faith, using Dellarobia’s experiences and interactions with nature to illuminate the tension between personal belief and scientific understanding, ultimately suggesting that environmental awareness and personal transformation are essential responses to the ecological crisis.      To illustrate how science and faith can coexist, Kingsolver carefully...

  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 ...

 Nicholas Conjelko  Kingsolver Blog Post  The “Bystander Effect” occurs when the more people there are in an emergent situation, the less likely it is for any one of them to provide any actual assistance. The Earth and its climate is changing drastically on an annual basis, and a majority of the people inhabiting it are merely bystanders. This reigns true in the city of Feathertown, Tennessee where Flight Behavior and its story takes place. The town is not education-centric, instead allowing for their star athletes to take the place of many jobs around town. A higher education does not interest many of them, for they are put in situations where a higher education serves very little purpose due to lack of opportunities. This lack of opportunities results in a resounding amount of the residents living in poverty. This reality brings up an interesting argument regarding the “Bystander Effect” and who should be responsible for taking affirmative action in the dire situation ...

     In Flight Behavior, Kingsolver uses the monarch butterflies' shifting migration to explore how climate change quietly but drastically affects the environment—and how people often struggle to connect those changes to their everyday lives. At first, Dellarobia sees the butterflies as a rare "bonus" for her town, a way to make a little money in a place that doesn’t see much good fortune. As she says, “Is that so bad? They’re beautiful. We don’t get a lot of bonuses around here, let me tell you” (p. 147). For Dellarobia, the butterflies represent something unexpected and positive—an opportunity to escape her financial worries. But when Ovid explains that the butterflies' migration has been disturbed by climate change, Dellarobia realizes that the butterflies are not just a happy surprise but a sign that something much bigger is wrong with the world. Their disruption is a clear signal that the environment is changing in ways that are out of our control. This moment hi...

  Sydney Prenkert Blog Post 10-22 In Tess Gunty’s novel, The Rabbit Hutch, rabbits are mentioned on sixty-eight different occasions, not including Todd’s drawings. While Gunty mentions several other types of small animals, rabbits clearly hold the most importance. One might think that the use of rabbits is meant to play along with the title of the novel, but readers know that “The Rabbit Hutch” is really an old nickname for La Lapinière Affordable Housing Complex in Vacca Vale, an apartment complex where many of the novel’s characters reside. At a first glance, there does not seem to be a clear trend in Gunty’s use of rabbits. Yet somehow, they end up being in nearly every chapter. If Gunty wanted the readers to pick up on the symbolism of the rabbits, she was not trying to make it easy. At the very beginning of the novel, Gunty describes Blandine as she exits her body: “She is every cottontail rabbit grazing on the vegetation of her supposedly dying city” (Gunty 4). A chapter late...

The reconstruction of self is one of the main themes explored in Tess Gunty's novel The Rabbit Hutch. The concept of reshaping one's identity is illustrated through the character of Blandine, the protagonist, who is seen reconstructing her identity as a direct result of her trauma and the systemic pressures that have been placed upon her by the society. Tiffany (later Blandine) is initially showcased to be a smart girl who excelled in high-school, but dropped out, after facing a toxic secret relationship with her music teacher. The reason behind her decision to drop out is influenced by the society's response to finding out about her relationship. She is unfairly blamed for the relationship while her teacher, Mr.Yager, was barely held accountable despite being the main culprit. They blamed Blandine (Tiffany) for being sexually involved with a married man while James faced no consequences. As a response to this experience, Tiffany decided to take up the name "B...

  Although Vacca Vale is based on a real town in Indiana, many aspects of the setting feel dystopian and run-down. Left desecrated by an abandoned manufacturing company, Vacca Vale serves as commentary about environmental decay in a larger context. The most obvious example of this is the literal decay that came from the downfall of Zorn, when they declared bankruptcy and became “nothing at all” (166). Afterward, it was discovered that a Zorn plant had “leaked thousands of gallons of benzene” into schools, homes, and other buildings in Vacca Vale (167). This environmental injustice is tragic, but not uncommon. In this instance, Vacca Vale is a reflection of the Love Canal. This small town in Niagara Falls was the site of an abandoned canal that then became a dumping ground for chemical waste from a plastics manufacturer that then shut down. Following the event, the chemicals leaked into residents’ basements and into schools, harming anyone exposed. While this is one specific example...

Mystics and Outcomes           Tess Gunty’s The Rabbit Hutch includes characters such as Blandine, who seek and eventually experience a form of mysticism. While she appears to have achieved her goal, she is, in effect, much different from the past mystics whom she admires. The difference is in how she becomes happy despite having similar methods.           Blandine’s fight against her town’s revitalization plan and development of Chastity Valley is a point Gunty emphasizes. Jack argues that she wants “everyone to hate the valley plan” and that the plan will “help [the] economy and make jobs” (Gunty 215). Her defiance seems impractical, and the book leaves her reasoning to speculation. If things went her way, the town might be worse off. Looking at it from the mystic perspective, her struggle is similar to that of the past saint who endured torture and died by a dagger. Blandine fights for Chastity Valley for the sake of th...

The novel The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty follows a cohort of people from a melancholy town, Vacca Vale, Indiana. The novel follows Moses Robert Blitz, the son of a starlight actress. Moses shows us that even if you are a victim of your circumstances, you can continue to make poor decisions that are contradictory to your beliefs, and we see that throughout the book with Blandine, a mystic-obsessed girl, as well. Moses’ life has been peppered by his mother's abuse, and he swears to be better than her. Moses' contradictory lifestyle does more harm than good. He preaches support and giving help because of the abuse he received from his mother, but he is quick to dismiss and ignore people that ask for his help, as seen with “Mr. Boddy” (Gunty 260-261). He believes that if you do not think like him or act like him, then you simply do not understand what he has been through. Moses preaches goodness and even refers to himself as “Dr. Malachi" on his blog. His use of the blog is fo...

In Tess Gunty’s novel The Rabbit Hutch , the Blandine criticizes Vacca Vale for its corruption and failures yet has no desire to leave. This leads readers to question why Blandine wants to stay in a town that has continuously failed her and left her orphaned. This argument is brought to life in the novel when Jack asks,” [i]f you hate what's going on here so much? Why don’t you move someplace else?” (Gunty, 216) to which Blandine responds “I am never, ever leaving Vacca Vale,” (217). The author uses this argument to force readers into wondering why Blandine feels so strongly about staying. It is clear throughout the novel that Blandine is a extremely smart and well-read individual who enjoys reading Mystic books that focus on tragedy. I think that from this knowledge we can develop the idea that Blandine doesn’t feel trapped into staying but feels responsible for staying to make a change. We see this idea take form through her love for Mystic Women’s resilience and stubbornness. ...

How does Gunty use the character of Blandine in The Rabbit Hutch to explore themes of freedom and entrapment, particularly through her spiritual journey and interactions with her environment? In The Rabbit Hutch , Tess Gunty skillfully uses Blandine’s character to delve into the complex interplay between freedom and entrapment, both physically and mentally. Blandine’s experience in the crumbling town of Vacca Vale reflects a deeper sense of stagnation that seems to pervade every corner of her life. Her apartment in the Rabbit Hutch complex is a physical representation of her mental state—claustrophobic, decaying, and limiting. Gunty captures this when she writes, “The walls seem to close in on her, each crack a reminder of what’s broken and cannot be fixed” (pg. 112). The dilapidated surroundings of the Rabbit Hutch serve as a constant reminder of Blandine’s feeling of entrapment, as though she’s stuck in a place that’s beyond repair, mirroring her emotional state. One of the most sign...

       Although Joan is not the main character of this book, she goes through character development that is significant to the plotline. At the beginning of the book, Joan is a lonely woman described eating a jar of maraschino cherries. She usually eats these cherries before bed, which is one of the only simple pleasures Joan has at the time. This changes throughout the book when after Bladine gets stabbed, Joan reflects on the event:  “Is Joan some kind of defector of the Sisterhood if she doesn’t investigate? It’s late. She’s exhausted and afraid. She looks at the jar of maraschino cherries waiting on her nightstand. She hasn’t eaten one yet. The cherries were supposed to be delightful, but now they’re just accouterments to phonic misery” (Gunty 365). Joan deciding not to eat the cherries shows how her life is becoming too complex for her to be able to enjoy the things she once did. She used to be content being a passive character who doesn't interact with the...

     Tess Gunty's novel, The Rabbit Hutch, focuses primarily on a group of young people living the titular run-down apartment building in a fictional Indiana town of Vaca Vale. This group is comprised of one girl, Blandine, and three boys, Jack, Malik, and Todd. As the novel progresses, the boys become attracted to the idea of violently sacrificing animals in a ritualistic manner, inspired by the approval one instance gets from Blandine. Gunty uses the violent actions of the boys to demonstrate how toxic masculinity can be reinforced through trying to uphold superiority towards other men and how it can be socially pressured upon other men to propagate.       The animal sacrifices in the apartment begin first with Jack. He's challenged by Malik when he asks "Would you kill for her?" (Gunty 64). Challenged by this, he begins with a fish, that he takes out of a puddle of water. He describes it as "The fish sort of flailed once or twice, but then died...

    Tess Gunty's The Rabbit Hutch shares the story of the many inhabitants of an apartment complex located in Vacca Vale, Indiana, but mainly recounts the story of Blandine through her journey to exiting her body. Throughout the novel, Blandine is determined to fight against plans to develop and revitalize her hometown, Vacca Vale, specifically Chastity Valley, a nature-oriented part of town. So, why does Blandine hold such a firm conviction in trying to keep Chastity Valley as it is?       One plausible reason for Blandine's feelings towards Chastity Valley and having it remain untouched is that the valley seems to provide Blandine with personal comfort. Throughout the entirety of the novel, Blandine faces many difficult situations, such as having an exploitative relationship with her teacher, being abandoned by her parents, and being left to fend for herself by the age of 17; the valley seems to be representative of a place that is special and unique...

  Tess Gunty speaks of “entrapment” when she discusses  The Rabbit Hutch ? In what senses are characters in Gunty’s novel entrapped? Tess Gunty’s The Rabbit Hutch follows Blandine and others through an entire week in Vacca Vale Indiana before her attack.   Throughout the novel, the theme of entrapment is heavily apparent in all characters, especially Blandine.   I believe she is entrapped within the town physically, of her own free will, and her mind entraps her to the town and those inside it. Blandine constantly speaks out about her distaste of the urbanization project of Vacca Vale and thinks it’s not the proper way to save her city, saying “I will never, ever leave Vacca Vale … we’re the only ones who can save it” (Gunty 217 & 219).   Her declaration of devotion to Vacca Vale shows how she stays within the decrepit town by choice, and she aims to save it; however, she doesn’t put any plans into action to actually do something about it.   Others ...

The Rabbit Hutch , by Tess Gunty, follows a young group of individuals living in an imaginary town in Indiana called Vaca Vale. The group is made up of three boys, Jack, Malik, and Todd, and one girl, Blandine. Gunty demonstrates a theme of entrapment in her narrative by depicting these characters whose lives are influenced by various physical and psychological limitations. The novel is set in a deteriorating apartment complex, also called The Rabbit Hutch in the fictional town of Vacca Vale, Indiana. The setting itself symbolizes a kind of physical confinement for the residents, who are trapped in a declining, forgotten place (Gunty 40). This physical environment mirrors the characters’ inability to escape their stagnant lives or achieve upward mobility. The complex also fosters a feeling of isolation. The close proximity of the residents contrasts with the emotional distance they experience from one another, enhancing the sense of loneliness and imprisonment. The physical walls of Th...