Pigs in Heaven
by Barbara Kingsolver
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Book Summary Information
Author: Barbara KingsolverEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1994-03-18
ISBN: 0060922532
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Book Reviews of Pigs in Heaven
Book Review: A Tapestry Of Woven Characters and Plots
Summary: 4 Stars
A Tapestry of Woven Characters and Plots I am very impressed with Barbara Kingsolver's ability to cleverly link most of the characters and plots presented in Pigs in Heaven. Everything is so intricately webbed together that the idea of linkage represents a great deal of symbolism in the novel. Fate rules the outcome of the story at the start of Chapter Two. The plot spills like a domino effect right after Taylor decides to turn the car around and listen to Turtle. Saving Lucky Buster prompted Turtle to be seen on Oprah by Annawake Fourkiller. Annawake then assumes and comes to find out that Turtle's adoption is in fact illegal, and the whole idea of the Nation having jurisdiction over child custody proceedings becomes a huge ordeal in the book. The fact that the Cherokee nation is such a unified tribe comes to our attention very often. Annawake says that family is the heart of the tribe. She states that the Cherokees love their children more than money. We soon come to find out that everyone in the tribe is related in some way or another to everyone else. Alice comes to notice that there is a tight bond between the generations on the reservation when she visits her friend Sugar. Alice feels accepted for the first time while she is in Heaven. She sees children respecting their elders with huge amounts of love and politeness, and children being shared from one mother to the next. As Sugar explains, the families themselves stick together like glue. Very rarely do you not see a plot of land with generations of an Indian family living together, "Well, because they'd just end up coming back anyway, because this is where the family is...listen, in the old days they didn't even go across the yard. They just added onto the house. When you married, the daughter and the husband just built another room onto her folks house"(220). The Cherokee Nation is one huge building block of generations. The existence of such a tight Cherokee family connection is the reason Cash feels totally lost in Jackson Hole. He is studied by fascinated tourists as if he were a freak of nature. Cash starts to regret his leaving the Nation, "It was a purely crazy thing for him to want to move up here two years ago. Oklahoma Cherokees never leave Oklahoma. Most don't even move two hickory trees away from the house where they were born"(114). He feels outcast and shamed and can easily identify with the pigeons who are displaced like he is in Jackson Hole. His heart draws him back to his family where his soul can be found. He is so incredibly linked to the tribe, that it is a security blanket for him: The massed reds flecked with gold are Indian blanket; Cash recalls this name with pleasure, like a precious possession lost and retrieved. He fixes the radio on the sweet, torn voice of George Jones and breathes deeply of the air near home(175.) The funny thing is that all of his immediate family is dead, his wife and his daughters, but he refers to those Cherokees even very distantly related to him as family. The idea that Cash is "found" by the Cherokees seems ironic. An individual is found by a community according to the tribe. One person versus many, the terms seem like opposites to me, but this is what Barbara Kingsolver was most interested in. In a documentary seen in class, Barbara Kingsolver says that one of the most intriguing connections is autonomy versus community in her books. The Cherokees feel that the individual is brought out among the community. A link exists between the self and the Nation. Everything is shared from children and homes to adoption decisions by the tribe. Another example of individual acceptance within the community is Boma Mellowbug. The Cherokees cherish the way she puts empty bottles on trees, in fact, the whole community gets involved and comes together to help create the bottle trees. The myth Annawake constantly tells others about the boys who wouldn1t listen to their mother has a linked meaning. The Indians see the six linked stars and refer to the constellation as the six pigs in heaven. White people see seven stars, the extra star Annawake said may be the mother who refused to let go of her children. Of course the mother portrayed in Pigs in Heaven who would do anything to keep her child was Taylor. Ironically, Taylor is then linked with the Cherokee myth. Whether there are six stars or seven stars the quantity of stars can be connected with the number main characters in the book; Alice, Taylor, Turtle, Annawake, Sugar, and Cash. Then in the end of the novel when Annawake decides joint custody would be the best alternative for Turtle, a sharing is being exchanged. In the end, the start of an acceptance between the Cherokee and the White people is being exerted.
Summary of Pigs in Heaven
A phenomenal bestseller and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award for fiction, Pigs in Heaven continues the story of Taylor and Turtle, first introduced in The Bean Trees.
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