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

In life one faces many obstacles and when one finds themselves in that obstacle they have to make a sacrifice whether that be animate or inanimate. In the Disney movie Hercules, the main character has to choose between eternal life among gods or the place he’s always known as home and the place where he found happiness , so Hercules sacrifices his eternal life with gods and stays where his happiness and peace is. This is an example of how one sacrifices in order to find peace it is also an example of how home can be a symbol of peace. These two ideas appear multiple times throughout The Odyssey by Homer and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

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.

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.

In Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses, the concept of understanding sacrifice to establish a greater moral good is central to the main characters and their developed values. Specifically, McCarthy incorporates a great sacrifice of young love made by John Crady Cole’s love interest, Alejandra. Alejandra strategically surrenders her promising relationship with John Grady in order to accomplish a greater agenda: bailing him out of jail therefore, assuring the forbiddance of their of their future union. In this instance, the sacrifice of love and union reveals the character’s deeper values rooted in moral obligation. This passionate act of love exemplifies Alejandra’s strength and selflessness, while also displaying a deeper understanding to the overall meaning of the book by highlighting how valuable friendships and relationships come at a great cost.

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.>>>>

Stories of love and sacrifice abound in literature. Perhaps one of the most well known stories among teens and adults is the tale of a poor, young couple struggling to find the perfect Christmas gifts for each other using their very limited means. They each manage to get what they think is the perfect gift for the other, but only accomplish this by selling a prized possession which effectively makes the new gifts impractical. This bittersweet narrative, “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry, illustrates the moral idea that a person, motivated by nothing but love for another, can possess a willingness to give in a self-denying way which necessitates that the reader consider that wealth be measured by something more than having money

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.

Could you consider both characters (Taylor and Lou Ann) to be dynamic characters? Taylor and Lou Ann were born in rural Kentucky, Taylor claims Kentucky is not a great place because “you can’t see far because of the mountains. Taylor also believes she will be independent. In this essay about The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver I will discuss could both characters be dynamic, I will choose one character and create an argument that explains my position. Taylor did a lot of things she thought she wouldn’t do.

“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow know what you truly want to become.”- Steve jobs. The quote shows a similarity in the book “Two Kinds” and “The Treasure Of Lemon Brown” because the treasure of lemon brown, greg wants to do something that the father doesn't want him to do. From the book Two Kinds it shows that the girl's mother wants to be in america because that's where her dreams are. In these stories “The Treasure of Lemon Brown” by Walter Dean Myers, “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan the authors uses figurative language to develop the mood of the stories.

In the book Of Mice and Men the main characters all experience the struggle of trying to achieve their personal version of absolute happiness. George and Lennie share a dream of having their own farm. The farm symbolizes ultimate happiness to them. They are bonded together with a common goal and it gives them a sense of community. The road to ultimate happiness is one of struggle and perseverance. George and Lennie view having their own farm as freedom to do what they want as displayed in the below quote from the book.

The play Romeo and Juliet demonstrates that in order to gain what is worth living for, we must sometimes give up all that we have. One way this play proves this

Why do we risk our happiness for others? In “The Third Wish,” by Joan Aiken, Mr. Peters and his wife, Leita, both have to make sacrifices for each other. In this short story, a man named Mr. Peters is introduced when he sees a swan who was stuck in a thorn bush. Once he helps the swan, it is revealed to him that the swan was actually a forest king. The king grants Mr. Peters three wishes. Mr. Peters uses his first wish for a wife. He gets a wife named Leita, who is truly a swan. Mr. Peters realizes that Leita misses her old life with her sister. He dolefully uses his second wish to turn Leita back into a swan so she can be happy again. Mr. Peters, from then on, visited Leita and her sister. He dies peacefully and happily and never uses his third wish. In “The Third Wish,” the reader learns how sacrifice can lead to a person’s happiness or dismay.

Sacrificing one’s life or personal values plays a huge role in the film The House of the Spirits and the short story “The Gift of the Magi.” Praising things that don’t matter in life such as materialistic things is much less important, and what matters the most is risking everything you got to be truly happy in the end. The film and the short story illustrate how every action depending on whether the intention is good or bad, can teach an individual a lesson that can be learned for a lifetime; in order to effectively understand this concept, The House of the Spirits by Billie August and “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry are strategically analyzed from a literally view at such themes as marriage, romance, and sentimental value.

“My purpose is to show that in every human heart there is an innate tendency towards a respectable life; that even those who have fallen to the lowest depths in the social scale would, if they could, get back to the higher life…”(Rollins 7-8 ). O`Henry came up with this philosophy when writing his many different, entertaining stories. “The Gift of the Magi” was initially published in 1906 in O`Henry`s second collection of stories. “The Gift of the Magi” is a perfect story to illustrate how people do anything for the ones they love. The main characters each sell their most valued possession in order to buy the other the perfect Christmas present. They each bought the other something to complement their prized possession. Ironically, they had both sold their prized possession to get the other a gift.However, they bought gifts that were now useless to one another. Themes have some aspect of life, general truth, or moral that is shown throughout the story by the author. The themes in this short story really stand out to the reader. The way in which the two main characters demonstrate their selflessness for each other helps to emphasize the three major themes: poverty, love, and sacrifice.

Everyone has a biological family, but sometimes people give up their children or when children grow up they sometimes decide to leave this biological family. But, this does not mean that these children have given up a family forever. According to dictionary.com, a family is “a group consisting of parents and children living together in a household”. This definition generates the idea that family does not have to be biological. In The Bean Trees, Kingsolver uses the intimacy between the character to suggest the idea that non biological families can be as strong or even stronger than biological ones.