She is dead. She does not appear physically but haunts mentally. She is Codi and Hallie's mother Alice, the late wife of Homero Noline. Throughout the novel Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver Alice impacted the characters, action, and theme(s).
When Alice passed away she took part of Homer with her. What she left was a misfit of time and circumstance; an emotionally distraught and distant man who attempted to resemble a father but veered more towards the tin man.
Homero existed beyond his wife as only a page out of an instruction manual, the one with the caution statement.
…
