Prodigal Summer

Part 1

In Prodigal Summer, the author, Barbra Kingsolver, relates many of the geographical scenes and time periods to actual existing things, but alters them, by changing the names and location, altering each item to serve a different purpose. There are many geographical things in Prodigal Summer which resemble real world things, but have fictional names. The main setting of the story “Predators” in the book is based in the Zebulon National Forest (Kingsolver 7). No forest named Zebulon exists today (“Forest Service Home”). Although no forest named Zebulon exists today, there is a forest named the George Washington and Jefferson National forest. This forest is located in Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky (“About Us”). It is a possibility that Kingsolver alters the George Washington and Jefferson National forest in the real world today, to be the Zebulon National Forest in Prodigal Summer, because this is the area which the setting is based in. Zebulon County is mentioned, first in the beginning of the book, as the county in which Deanna resided before she took on her job in the national forest. There is no such county in Virginia, Kentucky, or West Virginia (“List of Counties in Virginia”, “Kentucky Counties”, “List of Counties in West Virginia”). Egg Fork is introduced in the book as the town within Zebulon County, near where the setting takes place (Kingsolver 17). There is also no such town in Virginia, Kentucky, or West Virginia (“Virginia Towns”, “Places in Kentucky that start with E”, “List of towns in West Virginia”) called Egg Fork.

Kingsolver also uses geographical things which resemble real world things of the same name, but their location has been moved or modified. Lexington, Kentucky is distant from the novel’s surroundings near the Kentucky-Virginia border, where the setting is based. A Toyota factory is discussed, as if local workers were able to commute for their jobs every day (Kingsolver 181). In reality, the Toyota factory...