ancy and miscarriage she endured at fifteen. It is through this reconstruction, reconnection to her past and connection to her present that helps CodiÆs identity take solid shape. As she says of her travels with Lloyd through Native America lands, ôTo people who think of themselves as GodÆs houseguest, American enterprise must seem arrogant beyond belief. Or stupid. A nation of amnesiacs, proceeding as if there were no other day than todayö (Kingsolver 240).
CodiÆs father, Doc Homer, also serves to illustrate that it is impossibld to construct identity without being capable of dealing with memories, many of them those that individuals or mainstream culture, collectively, would rather forget. As Stevenson (328) suggests, ôIronically, her fatherÆs confused thoughts reveal aspects of CodiÆs past that she has repressed, yet he loses his ability to bring order to his memories and impressions, and thus loses himself.ö CodiÆs reconstruction of identity is also shaped by her relationship with her younger sister, Hallie, who remained behind in Nicaragua. Codi feels like she is detached and distant from active living in the present. This is largely a result of her fear over abandonment and loss, because anything she has loved she has lost or connects with painful memories. As she tells us, ôI had quietly begun to hope for nothing at all in the way of love, so as not to be disappointed. It works. It gets to be a habitö (Kingsolver 117).
Hallie, in contrast, is someone who dives into life, immersing herself in worthwhile causes that just happen to coincide with the politically correct ones of the past few decades. As Kingsolver (225) says of her younger sister, ôIÆd spent a long time circ
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