The Beet Queen by Louis Erdrich Literary Analysis Essay Sample

Alone in a dark, gray place is where the Adare children’s true characters would be shown. In The Beet Queen, by Louis Erdrich, tone and imagery are used to show the impact the environment of the town of Argus has on the children. 

Diminished and dilapidated, the town of Argus sits. Erdrich describes the children's entrance as unfriendly, unwelcoming, and unkind. She writes, “their lips were violet and their feet were so numb that, when they jumped out of the box car, they stumbled and scraped their palms and knees through cinders.” The violet lips and numb feet paint the reader with a picture of coldness. The cinders show the colorlessness of the town. It is cold, gray, and unwelcoming. Erdrich describes the children as night and day--they are complete opposites. The description of children helps the reader understand why each child reacts differently to the surroundings they are presented with.  Mary is described as “square,” and “short and ordinary.” The author uses the image of a square to describe Mary because it is one of the most common shapes. While Mary is described as square, Karl is, “tall,” with “his mouth sweetly curved, his skin fine and girlish.” Karl is not boxy, he is unordinary. By the description of Karl, the reader can infer that he will not be satisfied in the dull and gray town.

Somberly, the children walk through the town. Edrich shows the children's somberness by  writing that, “they’d been traveling all night and the chill had reached deep.” The image of a deep chill makes the reader picture the children's extreme tiredness. A cold that progresses so deep over the night that the children have to have determination in their mind to keep on, to their destination. Edrich uses a dark and diminished tone to describe their walk. The “string of houses, weathered gray or peeling gray paint,” further describe the town's desolate feeling as the children walk by. Karl is stopped in his tracks when he is faced with the beautiful blossom tree. Karl saw the tree as, “a scratch of light against the gray of everything else.” The author uses this imagery to show Karl cannot live in a colorless world. In a town without color or definition, Karl is drawn to the one thing that shows life. Edrich describes Mary’s reaction to the tree as unphased. “Mary trudged solidly forward, hardly glancing at it.” Mary’s squareness causes her to barely consider the tree. She is content with the dull life ahead of her. The only thing that worries Mary is Karl’s lack of concern for their destination. Karl is so transfixed with the tree he does not even notice the dog rushing towards him. Erdich uses imagery to explain that this was no small mutt. “Large and anxious, it flew forward with great bounds.” The dog is massive in size and anxious to charge at Karl. When it is finally set free, it rushes towards Karl like a racehorse running to the finish line. In an instinctual act, Karl pulls the branch from its tree. When the branch of the tree is broken, Karl is forced to flee because he cannot live a colorless life. He screams, “Run!” to Mary, but they both had different places in mind. Mary ran to her aunt's house and stuck to the initial destination, while Karl ran back to the boxcar. Mary stays because she can live without brightness. Her dull character does not require an elaborate life. While in Karls case, it could be assumed that he knows not where he is going, but he knows he cannot stay in a place with no color left. 

Some, like Mary, are content to live a dull life, while others will die without color. In Karl’s case, he would rather face the unknown than live a dull and ordinary life.