Comparing Kingsolver's The Bean Trees And The Gift Of The Magi

In her romance novel The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver discusses the importance of family and friendship. The protagonist Taylor Greer escapes her home in Pittman County to live a more fulfilling life elsewhere. She arrives in the Cherokee Nation where she is handed a baby. She names the baby Turtle and drives to Tucson where she stops by Jesus is Lord Used Tires and meets Mattie, the owner. The tire shop doubles as a sanctuary and protects illegal immigrants. Kingsolver uses the motif of birds to symbolize the illegal immigrants and emphasize a theme of salvation. Taylor moves in with a self-deprecatory, single mother named Lou Ann Ruiz. Lou Ann changes her negative attitude over the course of the book, which adds on to the theme of backbone and internal strength. Turtle develops an attachment to vegetation, a motif of the novel that symbolizes growth and rebirth. Taylor, Turtle, Lou Ann’s son Dwayne Ray, and Lou Ann’s family-like qualities illustrates Kingsolver’s themes of a true home and family. At the end of the novel, Taylor faces a difficult situation in which she Taylor could lose Turtle to further highlight Kingsolver’s theme of true family. Kingsolver presents the tension between legality and morality through the depictions of her characters’ choices and values. In doing so, she underscores the message that shared morality, rather than legality, defines and creates a better family.

Because flowers go in cycles of life and death, we can look to them as archetypes. The cycle is really closely related to the circle which is a very prominent archetype in the world today and the past. The other thing I think of when I hear the word flowers is gardens. When I looked for the garden archetype I found that gardens symbolize love and fertility (YourDictionary 2). Flowers and gardens also have many symbols associated with them depending on who you ask.

The Bean Trees has various situations and many are relevant to day-to-day life, one of these situations that appear often is violence. Violence is prominent in day-to-day life and in The Bean Trees, the violence presented is various and affects the life of the abused in many ways, because there are various forms of people there are various forms of reactions. As a reader, the book brings a range of emotions, and creates strong connections with the characters, as the novel continues more abuse is brought to light, this abuse ranges from violence towards children, domestic violence and overcoming abuse.

Even though some sacrafices are not neccesary, they hardest ones are made for those who you love. Sacrifice plays a major role as one of the main themes in the Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. Sacrifices were made for the mothers and daughters which were fueled by love and honor, such as when An-Mei sacrificed her own flesh and blood for her dying mother, Suyuan giving up her children so they could live a happy life, and An-Mei risking her life and sacrificing a sapphire ring from her mother. These were all made for the sake of somebody else's good and for love of somebody else.

Esperanza and Estevan had a rough past, including losing a child and having to run from their tyrannical government that they eventually told Taylor about. Taylor became overwhelmed when she learned their story that she thought “All of Esperanza’s hurts flamed up in my mind, a huge pile of burning things that the world just kept throwing more onto. Somewhere on that pile was a child that looked just like Turtle.” (Kingsolver, 147).

Within the novel Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, the reader is introduced to a young women named Marietta, Missy, and she later on renames herself Taylor. Taylor story is much like a coming of age story, and she many new lessons along the roads of life. She learns how to deal with unforeseen troubles, phobias, and the many forms of love, and because these inner actions she learned to see a new outlook on life.>>>>

In the novel “The Bean Trees”, the Cherokee Indian child Turtle was adopted by Taylor, and Taylor kept Turtle with her for a period time. If Taylor had not adopted Turtle, Turtle would be alone. Turtle was abandoned in the park, and Turtle spoke little in the whole story, because she was abused. Turtle’s case highlights the effects of child abuse, Turtle had been physically and sexually abused. Child abuse happened anywhere and anytime. For example, neglect, physical abuse, emotional abuse and sexual abuse are some types of abuse. Especially in China, child abuse is serious, and the internet and newspapers reported about it now and then. The phenomenon of child abuse in China happens in society, family and school.

According to the book Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia, When Barbara Kingsolver had insomnia and was pregnant with her first child she spent her nights writing her first book. Many of the New York Times book reviews rated The Bean Trees as being a great book.

The novel, The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, is the story of Taylor who just finished high school. She never had the easiest life, but she was determined not to end up like her other classmates, barefoot and pregnant. “Mama always said barefoot and pregnant was not my style. She knew. It was in this frame of mind that I made it to my last year of high school without event,” (Kingsolver, 3). Thinking like this she thought she would never end up with a baby, then Turtle came. An abused three year old girl was left with her at a bar without an explanation. Instead of leaving her behind, Taylor took her in and was raising her on her own without help. This was only one of the many hardships she went through, but her mother taught her well.

are clearly courageous, as she disobeys the law in order to help someone else. She is

In the novel, The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, we look as Taylor grows an extraordinary arrangement. This young lady tackles an immense duty of nurturing a youngster that doesn't even fit in with her. The companions that she procured along the way help show her about affection and obligation, and those companions turn out to be family to her and Turtle. Having no involvement in parenthood, she wades through as well as can be expected, as all moms do.

At one point or another we have all wondered how we are going to get past a certain obstacle in life. One of those obstacles where you just can see how it could ever possibly be worked out. Similar situations are faced by some of the characters in The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. The bean Trees is a tale of a girl named Taylor who leaves her hometown in hopes of adventure. During her journey she get forced to care for a child that was given to her by a stranger, and later explain to that same child that her real mother is dead. She helped illegal immigrants and meets and has to let go of the first male she has ever been positively attached to, Estevan and Esperanza face the challenge of being illegal immigrants and Taylor must let go

ns-youve-been-getting-wrong/). Authors use this concept regularly to form strong connections between their characters. In the novel The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver conveys this idea by contrasting Taylor’s imperfect family with the powerful friendships formed later in the story.

Bill Withers once said, “Lean on me when you’re not strong and I’ll be your friends, I'll help your carry-on." When there is a problem in life, there is always someone there for you. In this quote, Withers is letting a friend know that when they are going through rough times, he will be there for them. Furthermore, Withers even offers to support and help them through struggle. In Barbara Kingsolver's’ The Bean Trees, Struggle leads to support as shown through Mattie’s perseverance to get Taylor through her fear of tires, Mattie and Lou Ann’s assistance when Taylor was in shock and, Lou Ann and Taylor’s relationship development.

For generations innocent people confiscated their freedom and joy leaving them in despair in order to please the dominant society. Similarly in both short stories the dominant society’s happiness is based upon the pain and sorrow of