An Analysis of The Current Situation of Parenting in America in "High Tide in Tucson", "Stone Soup", "Somebody's Baby" and "Civil Disobedience at Breakfast" by Barbara Kingsolver Essay

The Bird Eye View of the World.Barbara Kingsolvers book High Tide in Tucson Essays from Now or Never is a collection of twenty-five different essays. They do not seem connected to each other at the first sight, but in reality, a few major themes, such as parenting, motherhood, family life and nature, connect them together. Several of the essays contain a critique of different aspects in the U.S. culture on which the author focuses. For my writing, I chose four of those essays High Tide in Tucson, Stone Soup, Somebodys Baby, Civil Disobedience at Breakfast, in which Kingsolver wrote about parenting in America. In my essay, I will try to explain how the author connected her essays with the critique of this aspect, and what the nature of her critique is.In the first part of my essay, I would like to write about the relationship between parents and their children. Lets see what she wrote about the American parents way of education their children. In her essay Somebodys Baby, she wrote that the American culture tended to regard children as a sort of toxic-waste product a necessary evil(100), a mistake that should not be rewarded.(102) People do not respect children, and when the children grow up, they do not want to respect the elders. When I was studying in ESL 110D class, we talked with my teacher about respect. Before, I thought that Americans do not respect their elders. Thanks to my teacher, who explained to me that America is the nation that loves its independence. People do not help much their elders because they do not want to be deprived of the independence from their elders, and also elders do not want to cause problems to their youth. In other words, young people respect their elders, but in different ways than we do. It is very hard to understand people with the different cultural background and accept their points of view. But...

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