Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior

Dellarobia and Cub Turnbow, a bickering, working-class rural couple showcased in “Flight Behavior” by Barbara Kingsolver, display front and center the emotional and financial hardship that their socioeconomic class faces on a day-to-day basis. The balancing act between providing a meaningful Christmas, while keeping a balanced budget provides a challenge to the Turnbows. Class difference maintains the economic cycle that perpetuates the never-ending battle of affordability versus value for the lower socioeconomic class. As a result, the commercialist struggle interferes with the true meaning of Christmas. Globalization introduces a cycle into the commercialist sphere that enforces the class difference between socioeconomic classes. Imported …show more content…
As Cub insightfully states, “’The true meaning of Christmas is, Turn it over and look at the price tag’” (Kingsolver 160). Cub’s exasperation reflects an opinion shared by many in rural, working-class families: Christmas reduces down to how much money one can spend. The Turnbows feel the anguish from thinking that if they do not spend as much money on Christmas or gifts, that their kids will think their parents do not love them as much as other parents who spend more on Christmas. While shopping, Dellarobia examined the shirts Cub brought from the shelves, “rubbing the pathetically thin fabric between her fingers. The side seams of the Little Pony shift ran right off the edges, already raveling apart.” (Kingsolver 158). She expresses outrage that commercialism creates products, like the shirts or Spiderman socks, which have half the value, but double the price, imposing more stress on the anxious task of choosing between what constitutes a Christmas gift or not. For example, “Cub kept saying he wanted the kids to have a ‘real Christmas,’ but she felt off balance, wondering what those words could possibly mean” (Kingsolver 163). For many Americans, Christmas season places a colossal amount of pressure on families, especially in the lower and middle socioeconomic classes to deliver a “real Christmas” for their kids. Cub senses the pressure from Dellarobia and …show more content…
Dellarobia greets Cub in the doorway, “’We’re celebrating the true meaning of Christmas’” (Kingsolver 179). Her efforts to throw a party were to instill a new meaning of Christmas in Cub that does not tie itself to money. An ironical comparison ensues between Cub’s definition of Christmas and the money on the tree. Dellarobia transfers the meaning of Christmas from financially based to one that has experiential and memorable benefits by decorating a tree with “ornaments” and throwing a Christmas party. The Christmas party experience provides Dellarobia as a way to close the class gap and fulfill the true meaning of the