The Beet Queen Essay

The environment we live in can bring us happiness like the setting sun, sadness like the sound of thunder or peace like the star filled sky. But it's what we get from the environment that impacts us. In Louise Erdrich's novel The Beet Queen the cold barron environment forces the kids to choose whether to stay or leave. The environment challenges the kids character to stay the same as when they arrive or choose to change by leaving the town.

Traveling can be hard, but even more so when traveling at the ages of fourteen and eleven. As Kale and Mary arrived their destination the “lips were violet.” This imagery depicts how the “cold spring morning” had been too much for the kids to bare. This shows how the kids were abandoned and even left to find their own way to where they needed to be with no means of warmth or care. Not only were their lips violet but their “feet were numb” from the cold and numb from traveling without any refuge from the weather. They had to travel in the cold without the proper care, proper …show more content…
Mary’s name “was [practical]” meaning there wasn’t anything special about her she was just an ordinary 11 year old she was just, Mary. She didn’t stop to smell the roses like her brother does instead she just blows through life without a care. As “Mary trudged [forward]” hardly noticing the tree shows how oblivious she was to the beauty of her surroundings. The imagery of trudged suggests that she is just slowly walking through life as if it has nothing to offer, hince her not even noticing the “delicate perfume” of the tree. She shows how she is practical by how she runs toward the “east”, away from her problems, away from her brother and toward the practical place. Her running to the east shows how she brings an end to her traveling life on the train but also to her brother. Though she was not anything special it characterizes how she does what is expected and not anything