A nurturing environment cultivates individuality which is present in all humans, but grants only a few individuals the ultimate goal of mankind - prosperity and peace. In the excerpt from Louise Erdrich’s novel, The Beet Queen (1986), Karl and Mary are children thrown into a new environment that is destructive for one and a home for another. The bitter and apathetic town of Argus aids in characterizing Mary and Karl by their actions and reactions to its dull nature.

Mary is depicted very bluntly, “square and practical.” The detail that she is “eleven years old” entails her maturity as well as how “ordinary” she has already become. Mary has been forced into a situation where she must behave as an adult would owing to her mother’s incapacity