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Prodigal Summer

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Submitted By juelz666
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Part 1
In Prodigal Summer, the author, Barbra Kingsolver, relates many of the geographical scenes and time periods to actual existing things, but alters them, by changing the names and location, altering each item to serve a different purpose. There are many geographical things in Prodigal Summer which resemble real world things, but have fictional names. The main setting of the story “Predators” in the book is based in the Zebulon National Forest (Kingsolver 7). No forest named Zebulon exists today (“Forest Service Home”). Although no forest named Zebulon exists today, there is a forest named the George Washington and Jefferson National forest. This forest is located in Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky (“About Us”). It is a possibility that Kingsolver alters the George Washington and Jefferson National forest in the real world today, to be the Zebulon National Forest in Prodigal Summer, because this is the area which the setting is based in. Zebulon County is mentioned, first in the beginning of the book, as the county in which Deanna resided before she took on her job in the national forest. There is no such county in Virginia, Kentucky, or West Virginia (“List of Counties in Virginia”, “Kentucky Counties”, “List of Counties in West Virginia”). Egg Fork is introduced in the book as the town within Zebulon County, near where the setting takes place (Kingsolver 17). There is also no such town in Virginia, Kentucky, or West Virginia (“Virginia Towns”, “Places in Kentucky that start with E”, “List of towns in West Virginia”) called Egg Fork. Kingsolver also uses geographical things which resemble real world things of the same name, but their location has been moved or modified. Lexington, Kentucky is distant from the novel’s surroundings near the Kentucky-Virginia border, where the setting is based. A Toyota factory is discussed, as if local workers were able to commute for their jobs every day (Kingsolver 181). In reality, the Toyota factory mentioned is located in Georgetown, KY, near Lexington, which would not commuting range for local workers in the novel, so Kingsolver has moved the Toyota factory from its original place (“Plant Tour”). There are also many geographical things which retain their real world location and characteristics from real world and in the novel. For instance, Virginia, Kentucky, and Lexington, KY all retain their real world locations and characteristics in the novel. When Lexington is first introduced, it is said to be an outrageous distance from the town of Egg Fork, near the Virginia-Kentucky border (Kingsolver 33), which is proved as true, because Lexington is not close to the Virginia-Kentucky border (“Kentucky”). There are also indicators of time for the novel, which match up to time in the real world. Deanna, the main character of “Predators”, has been in the forest for two years (Kingsolver 59). Deanna heard the Dixie Chicks in Knoxville, at a small bar. Since then, she hadn’t been made aware that the Dixie Chicks had become famous, considering she has no radio to listen to (Kingsolver 189). The Dixie Chicks released their first album, “Wide Open Spaces,” on January 23, 1998 (“Dixie Chicks”). Being that Deanna had been in the forest for two years now, it could be assumed that the time period of the book has to be around 1998.

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