The Beet Queen (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Louise Erdrich
- First Published: 1985
- Type of Plot: Parable
- Time of Work: 1932, the Depression years
- Setting: Argus, North Dakota, a fictitious town on the Minnesota-North Dakota border, and the northern plains
- Principal Characters: Mary Lavelle, Karl Lavelle, Adelaide and Theodor Lavelle, Sita, Fritzie and Pete Kozka, The Great Omar
- Genres: Long fiction, Short fiction, Domestic realism, Family literature
- Subjects: 1950’s, Maturation or coming of age, Values, 1960’s, 1970’s, Blizzards, Family or family life, Self-discovery, Mothers, Parents and children, Tradition, Dogs, Gay men, Homosexuality or homosexuals, Love or romance, Suicide, 1940’s, Abandoned children, Midwest, Brothers and sisters, 1930’s, Jealousy, envy, or resentment, Native Americans or American Indians, Small-town life, Ethics, Abandonment, Eccentrics or eccentricities
- Locales: Florida, Argus, ND (fictive), Chippewa Indian Reservation, Minneapolis, MN
The Story
In the opening episode of “The Beet Queen” (a six-paragraph prologue that displays the author's flair for the dramatic), Mary, a girl of eleven, and her fourteen-year-old brother Karl leap from a boxcar in the sugar beet valley of fictional Argus, North Dakota, and head for the home of their Aunt Fritzie, who, with her husband Pete, runs a reasonably successful butcher shop. As they walk through the streets, a fierce dog frightens them. Mary runs toward the butcher shop and Karl runs back to the boxcar in a scene reminiscent of the flight of Mendel and Isaac from...
[The entire page is 2218 words long]
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