"Each morning by daylight she crossed the same distance from her kitchen door to Ovid's camper, pausing there on her way to the lab to record the previous day's high and low temperatures." – Kingsolver, Flight Behavior






There are times when reading FB that we have to wonder if the same criticism that once applied to the Scarlet Letter – that the characters symbolic and thereby naturally flat and cut out – might also apply to the players of Feather town. This question becomes more intriguing as the book goes along because in fact the scenes that generally depict the day to day life of leading family is quite mundane, to say the least; a Christmas shopping scene, for example, seems to meander along such a pre-set pattern that to call it pre-cut seems oddly prescient, considering the date of Scarlet Letter. And yet, there are several redeeming formal qualities of the structure and girth of the text rise over time. One is that, from the narrator function of the limited third person, we begin to see a long line of reactions from Dellarobia, little asides and insights which, taken each on the surface don't amount to much more sometimes than interior barbs. Taken, however, against the backdrop of all other characters, what is established is a thinking person in among a group of others that aren't necessarily as curious or concerned. The point here is that Dellarobia is depicted to be both imprisoned by her surrounding flatline culture, but who is the one near to break out, to recognize, to consider and to change. This leads then to the second main point that comes from what I would call the stretched narrative of FB (the book could have been condensed to another Scarlet Letter with relative ease, but would then have missed many teachable moments). Dellarobia, over time, as she breaks out of a hundred molds, is shown to be an inherent learner. Who else among the townspeople are working alongside the primary butterfly experts. She is monitoring for a variety of reasons; one might have been titillation in the beginning, or even a false sense of pride, but it becomes, over time, something more akin to a vital connection to the natural world which is, after all, the human world as well. It is this very connection that is the difficult one for others to adhere to as they are more wrapped up in material concerns and what is also shown as a surface religion; that is, it is followed mechanically, but it is not enhancing the inner lives of those who attend. This is an extension of the old knock of traditional religions as claimants of humans' dominion over the natural world, and our hyper materialism is just another manifestation of this. To see through this part of archaic religions takes curiosity, and a willingness, in all truth, of carrying on an inner conversation with oneself as it stacks up against the reality the is mounting around us. Dellarobia, then, is a thinker, a learner, and a participant, all values that we tend to cherish at least in the abstract. When surrounded by those whom may not live by these forward-paced values, a lacking willingness can settle in, which it has in Feathertown. In Scarlet Letter, much of this was told us in typical 19th century fashion; todays content has to drag us through the material of life to get us to the point.