Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees

In The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, three characters in particular undergo a catharsis, each in their own way: Esperanza, Turtle, and Taylor. This paper will focus on the change on the development of the character Esperanza, showing the suffering and difficulties, she has undergone and how through a catharsis, this suffering was ameliorated.

In this story “The Bean Trees” by Barbara Kingslover we meet Taylor Greer, an average teenager from Pittman, Kentucky. Even though Taylor has never been through anything truly horrific in her life how can she truly understand how unpleasant the world can be? Taylor’s personal growth in the “The Bean Trees” is a part of an uncertain journey because Taylor is thrown into motherhood and forced to see the bad experiences people go through in life.

Life is constantly changing, like clouds in the sky; always shifting and turning. People never really know which way life will turn next, bringing them fortune or failure. When you look at how things change it is best to compare it to something that you can relate it to. The changeable nature of life can be related to the novel 'The Bean Trees.' This is a book written almost entirely on dealing with changes in the characters lives.

Born into poverty, wealth, or even fame, no one has any control over what they are born into in this world. Throughout the novel Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver provides many examples of how the effects of what environment a person is born into effects them morally during the 1980s. With all of the characters being stuck in penury all the way from the beginning of the novel to the end, helps to explain how it affects them each differently as an individual. The main character from the novel, Taylor Greer, is a prime example of the consequences of how her environment affected her moral traits as a character.

“Scotty Richey … killed himself on his sixteenth birthday … nobody could understand about Scotty … But the way I see it is, he just didn’t have anybody. … It was like we were all the animals on Noah’s ark that came in pairs, except of his kind there was only one” (Kingsolver 132-4). In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Bean Trees, Taylor mentions to Estevan her classmate Scotty Richey’s suicide. She explains that although her school had a very distinct social hierarchy, people within a class had each other for company. Scotty, however, had nobody. As a result of the extreme isolation he faced, he committed suicide. Today, bullying is a developing issue in the world and exclusion, which Scotty faced, is just one of many forms of bullying. What Scotty experienced in the novel occurs in schools around the world, and the consequences are unimaginable and horrific. In light of the increasingly advanced technology developed in recent years, cyberbullying has become a more common form of bullying among students. Cyberbullying, or bullying that occurs through the internet or media, happens due to the courage that bullies acquire by not having to physically face their victims. The harassment the victims experience lead to mental as well as physical health issues, which often times leads to suicide. In order to prevent such grave repercussions, education systems and parents must teach kids how to behave properly on the

Barbara Kingsolver uses irony and ____ in order to show differences in the roles of parents. Missy leaves her hometown and stops in a town to eat food. While there, a woman tries to give her a baby.

Author use many symbolism in the book The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. She uses symbolism because it makes it easier for readers to understand the deeper meaning or feeling of the character or the events that are happening. For example, author uses the symbolism of bean trees as transformation and Ismene as the abandoned children to show the deeper meaning of them.

Barbara Kingsolver, author of The Bean Trees, emphasizes her societal views throughout the novel and tells the story in the first person narrative of Taylor Greer, a practical but spirited girl trying to escape her simple and somewhat boring life to a more exciting one. Taylor’s character reflects Kingsolver in the way that they both focus on creating a more just society in which women are treated as equals and have the same rights as men. They both share a pride of being female and attempt to better the lifestyles of other women in their societies. Barbara Kingsolver writes novels which focus on social justice and she often writes about situations that are familiar, basing much of her writing on places or experiences that are personal to her. Kingsolver’s early life experiences in Arizona influence the characters, such as Taylor, who are developed in The Bean Trees and she connects these life experiences to the characters to express her feminist views and inform the reader of her concerns on this topic and demonstrates ways through her literature in which people can help solve the societal problems that women face.

In the fiction The Bean Trees Barbara Kingsolver uses metaphors and similes to demonstrate how a bird makes a nest in a cactus and a quail mother shepherds the whole family across the street suggesting that the young will be able to survive despite of painful surroundings and that a mother's maternity concern and love towards her children. During a doctor’s visit, Taylor's discovery of Turtle’s suffering from abuses in the past made Taylor deeply sad. At that moment, outside the window,"There was a cactus with bushy arms and a coat of yellow spines as thick as fur. A bird had built her nest in it.

The author Barbara Kingsolver once said, “Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws.” This means that mothers can go through great lengths and even break laws for their children. In the book “The Bean Trees”, Kingsolver portrays that quote by writing about Taylor’s experiences with an abandoned child named Turtle. Kingsolver included several characters in the book that act as mother figures. Barbara Kingsolver seems to be saying that a mother does not have to come biologically through the characters of Taylor, Lou Ann, and Mattie.

“You have a face only a mother could love” Although a harsh insult this is for most mothers a very true statement. A mother’s love is something that you will probably not experience until you have your very own children. Motherhood can be a very sentimental topic in literature, especially when there is conflict with a child and their mother figure. In the book The Bean Trees there are several mother figures that each express their love for their child, even going great lengths for them. Throughout the many great themes of The Bean Trees this one by far sticks out the most because the book is mainly about a mother taking care of her child, that isn’t even hers, making many sacrifices to give her the best life possible. The main character,

A Search for Something New One’s individuality is what sets them apart from everyone else. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver develops the story of a very strong woman, Taylor Greer who has made it her goal to establish her own individuality. This novel follows the once named Marietta Greer on her journey from her roots in Pittman County, Kentucky to her new adventure out west where she changes her name, her outlooks, and her way of life. On the journey to self-discovery, Taylor realizes that she must discover how to balance her individualism with her family community.

From the moment you’re put into your parents arms you have a special relationship with them and you will always have this special bond. This relationship is different from the relationship we form with friends, the connections we formed with friends are by choice. But that doesn't mean that the relationship formed with your parents is any less valuable because it started as an involuntary relationship. In the novel The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver shows us that the relationships we form by choice are different from the relationships we form out of necessity. In doing this she also shows us that the relationships we form out of necessity are the most meaningful. Barbara Kingsolver shows us that the relationship she has with her mother, a necessary

In a government survey of rape and domestic violence, “Nearly one in five women said that they had been raped or had experienced an attempted rape at some point, and one in four reported having been beaten by an intimated partner” (Rabin). The inequality that women face in society is shown in the quote as they are targets of abuse and assault. Barbara Kingsolver is an author that uses her stories to enlighten her audience on the inequalities of society. In her most popular novel, The Bean Trees, Kingsolver tells the story of two struggling mothers, Taylor, a young woman who adopts a Native American girl on a reservation, and Lou Ann, a single mother that has to overcome her worries to support her newborn son. Barbara Kingsolver uses elements

In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel “The Bean Trees”, she effectively uses colourful language to yield an image of rural Kentucky to her readers. Her descriptive imagery trigger thoughts, feelings, and mood. Kingsolver’s dialect, tone and Southern style also advance the plot which we see as she opens the story and as it progresses into each chapter.