Summary Chapters 1 & 2

Joseph Weirich

Chapters 1+2 Summary

In Chapter one the author describes the reasons why she and her family were moving from Arizona to Southern Appalachia.  The author can see a disappearing food culture in the United States, which is being caused by the industrialization of the food production industry, and the pursuit of the American dream. Americans can afford to live in excess, but the author isn’t talking solely about owning multiple cars and a 600 in. flat screen. Americans in Nebraska are drinking orange juice every morning and people in the deserts of Arizona are growing crops all year round. The author points out that Americans see nothing wrong with this picture. Most people don’t realize that oranges don’t grow in Nebraska and that NOTHING, at least very little, should be growing in the desert. All of these products are commodities, crops we spend money on because we want them but don’t need. Americans put their money in the hands of large corporations, some of them foreign, because those large companies have the power and resources to give them strawberries in January. The local farmer has no such luxury and is therefore not supported by the public.

Chapter two, titled “Waiting for Asparagus”, the text takes on a lighter tone, not focusing on the grave fumblings of American society. Instead Kingsolver will describe the beginnings of her and her family’s new adventure in their Appalachian farmhouse.  The setting is early spring, and the outlook is bleak. Too cold to plant crops, the family is stuck in limbo of pursuing their dream of establishing a homegrown chow paradise. Asparagus however, becomes the vegetable savior because of its burly resilience to cold weather. Able to be planted in early spring, the only requirements asparagus needs is for the ground to be partially thawed.  Finally, the transition has begun, with asparagus leading the way into the ground.

The author Barbara Kingsolver is very upbeat, and that is reflected in the tone of her writing. She always seems to be approaching a situation from its underbelly, and by the time she has written and explained her subject she is above it.  Often starting a chapter by explaining a problem or a small challenge, she will then transition into discussion and further elaboration of her topic. At the end of the chapter usually the problem has been solved, or Kingsolver clearly points out an answer to the problem and that it is solvable. For instance by mid chapter 1, Kingsolver is explaining how the American public is turning their back on the food culture and health of American farmland. By the end of the chapter she has identified that the American public must change their perception in order to revert the negative changes to our culture.