Of Ocean Tides and Understanding Whether she is writing essays, novels, or memoirs, author Barbara Kingsolver focuses her lens on the natural world. The memoir Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is the author’s testament to the power of locally grown foods. In Prodigal Summer, the Appalachian wilderness is as much a character as are the human protagonists. In her essay “High Tide in Tucson,” she recognizes that as humans we are part of the animal kingdom and that we have a natural responsibility to connect to what is most basic about our nature in order to persevere. Characteristic of Kingsolver’s writing, she draws readers in with superb imagery. Before touching upon theme, she tells a story – one of a hermit crab that has taken an unlikely journey to the desert. Her character isn’t just an ordinary hermit crab but “an outlaw against nature” with “red stiletto legs splayed in all directions.” Her words “outlawed” and “splayed” emphasize the crab’s foreignness. The crab is a transplant in the desert, much as the author is. She says: “When I was twenty-two, I donned the shell of a tiny …show more content…
Kingsolver comes to the realization that the primary thing that separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom is an over-focus on wants. She transitions to a day backpacking in the Eagle Tail Mountains where she chose to stay at a tinaja, “a deep, shaded hollow in the rock that held water.” While there, it occurs to her that the ancient people that once lived there had everything they needed. “They organized their lives around a catchment basin in a granite boulder, conforming their desires to the earth’s charities; they never expected the opposite.” Instead of walking further, Kingsolver chooses to stay put, breathing in the beauty and simplicity of needs over wants. The simple living that was once available to the ancient people living in that place, becomes a model for Kingsolver’s modern life, no matter where she finds