The Beet Queen By Louise Erdrich Analysis

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In the excerpt from The Beet Queen ,by Louise Erdrich, two children arrive in the town of Argus through the only means of transportation, a train. Once the pair arrive the environment immediately impacts them and is described through careful word choice and visual descriptions when mentioning what the town and children are like. As well as comparisons between between the the two children. Which all contribute to create an atmospheric feeling about the town that only Mary can endure. The careful word choice is present in the beginning when mentioning the arrival of the two as an “addition and a subtraction” which can be puzzling to the reader as to what the phrase is implying. Later on the author explains how Karl left while Mary stayed. This allows the reader to distinguish Mary as the addition and Karl as the subtraction. Also the author …show more content…

The mentioning of there being only bare horizon between buildings and the farming characteristics help determine the town is what is usually pictured as a small farming town, The road they walk on is dirt, the guilt letters on the bank, and the string of houses with the weathered grey or peeling paint almost represents a lifeless area with little to nothing occurring there and being affected by the dog and the whole situation and how it leads to the trees death eliminates any positive vibes in the town. Erdrich depicts how the environment impact the two children with two different characteristics in different ways. He does this by utilizing specific word choices in certain situations to create a strong meaning or feeling as well as a strong visual descriptions to help the reader characterize the children and the town. The two literary devices then contribute to the overall depiction of the town and how dull it is affecting the two children by making on stay and one run

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