The Beet Queen Essay, Research Paper
On a spring morning in 1932, young children Mary and Karl Adare arrive by boxcar in Argus, North Dakota. Having parted and going separate ways Mary having gone to live with her aunt, while Karl goes on to explore and live on the wilder side. These children were orphaned in a most peculiar way; their mother took off in a plane with an airplane stuntman. Haunted by disturbing images of her mother, Mary seeks refuge and stays with her mother?s sister Fritzie, who, with her husband Pete, run a butcher shop. This begins the forty-year saga. Ordinary Mary causes a miracle in her school?s playground. Her brother Karl returns nearly 30 years later, being seductive and after fathering a child, he abandons his family, which includes his wife Celestine. Mary must fight over a course to win acceptance from Sita her lovely yet disturbed cousin. Wallace Pfef, a town leader plays an essential role as a father to Celestine?s child Dot, while bearing his own lonely secret. Together their story is a unique one relating to the magic of natural events and the unending mystery of the human condition.