Love and Loss in Animal Dreams Anonymous 10th Grade

Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Animal Dreams epitomizes the themes of love and loss by means of its protagonist, Cosima (“Codi”) Noline, a young woman who returns to her small, rustic hometown of Grace, Arizona to take care of her demented father after spending a thirteen years away from home to begin her adult life. However, Codi associates deeply distressing experiences and sentiments of her childhood and adolescence with Grace. The novel poignantly focuses on her endeavors to come face-to-face with these traumatic events, and focuses eventually on her understated triumph over them through tragedy and genuine humor, while employing the core themes of coping with death and both platonic and romantic love as vessels to communicate the novel’s powerful political statements and warnings of the dangers melancholic nostalgia.

Codi is unable to dedicate herself to anyone because she is so entrenched in her own self-hatred, despite the constant input of external encouragement and gratification, that she cannot convince herself that anyone around her genuinely wants to grow a romantic relationship or friendship with her. She is afraid of loving and caring for other people because she struggles with communication with the ones she loves,...