Human Nature In Betty Smith's 'A Tree Grows In Brooklyn'

“Oh, magic hour, when a child first knows she can read printed words.”~ A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.

The book, Orchards by Holly Thompson, captures the responses from the characters in the book when devastation comes upon them. Orchards shows how people respond to suffering and how they try to cope with it. Kana, the main character, has to deal with the deaths of her two classmates. Kana and her family personally know both of these girls, so they are suffering the most. The grief of Kana’s community ties them together and allows their bond to grow stronger. People outside the community blame Kana and the other eighth grade girls, making her very frustrated. She instead blames others to make her feel better, but that changes. This reaction shows the reader that Kana is a very impulsive character.

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.

Johnny has a fear of Socs after getting jumped by them, which led him to kill Bob. He is regularly beaten by his father and emotionally abused by his mother. Ponyboy mentioned a quotation of Johnny   “ I had never been jumped, but I had seen Johnny after four Socs got hold of him, and it wasn’t pretty. Johnny was scared of his own shadow after that.” After Johnny killed Bob trying to protect Ponyboy from drowning he ran away with Ponyboy to an abandoned church in Windrixville. At the time he was afraid of anybody that he thought could hurt him. When the church went up in flames Johnny made the decision to run in with Ponyboy to save the children in the burning building. His gallant actions led to him being paralyzed, but he learned to overcome his fears of easily being frightened. Before that, he always used to think about killing himself because he was scared and hurt, but now knowing that he has something to live for he thought he was too young to die. He said this “you want to know something, Ponyboy? I’m scared stiff. I used to think about killing myself… ”, “ I don't want to die now. It ain’t long enough. Sixteen years ain’t long enough. I wouldn’t mind it so much if there wasn’t so much stuff I ain’t done yet --- and so many things I ain’t seen. It’s not fair. You know what? That time we were in Windrixville was the only time I’ve been away from our neighbourhood.” Thus, adversity can help to overcome the hardships and

In a way being selfish is what got humans where they are today.The evolution of humans required competition,and aggressive selfishness. We were forced to be selfish and watch our own back, to always put ourselves first in bad situations. This reaction to put ourselves first is natural, it’s in our blood. However, is the very thing that made us so successful as a species the one thing that so easily tears us apart? As humans we have an incredible capacity to dehumanize others to protect our own self interest.

Johnny was also very cocky, he was an amazing Silversmith but he was very vain about it. Johnny thought he could take on any job that was brought to him, alone. In which actually got him hurt, hurt to the point of losing his job, to the point of losing the use of his hand. Though when he found a job his eyes were opened to everything.

Everyone has a courageous moment in their life, but Johnny has multiple moments where he shows a true act of courage. The first event that shows that Johnny is courageous is when he saved Ponyboy from the Socs. There has been this rivalry between the Socs and the Greasers (the rich and the poor) which has caused a lot of fights. When Johnny’s best friend Ponyboy and him were in the park they were jumped by Bob and his group of Socs. They were drowning Ponyboy in the fountain and Johnny decided to take a courageous action and stab Bob to save Ponyboy. If it was not for Johnny, Ponyboy would be dead. Johnny knew that stabbing Bob would get him in trouble with the police, but he took the chance. “ You really killed him, huh, Johnny ?...

This presents him from a living a normal life because he is focusing on the negative aspects of the miraculous moment he encounters; although it is tragic, Johnny tries to prevent God’s plan from happening to Owen. Later, he realizes that he could not and God is unstoppable. Canon Campbell points out to Johnny that he lives “in the past” and has a “head for history which has affected their relationship because Johnny was once “close to Canon Campbell,” but he is focusing more on the past and ignoring the present (203). This demonstrates that Johnny is retreating into his past memories which affect not only his relationship with others, but him as well.

Johnny's personality changed throughout the book. At the beginning of the book, Johnny was immature. He was too full of himself and did not think before he spoke. By the end of the book, he was more mature. He became more humble and less easily angered. In chapter one, Johnny was overly proud and arrogant. Then, in chapter two, his hand got burnt and he lost his pride.

Taylor, a character in The Bean Trees from rural Kentucky that was born in raised in the South is an individual Barbara Kingsolver can relate to, but this connection between the author and the character is not all that makes this book unique. Kingsolver Kingsolver also presents a variety of figurative language, such as symbolism, similes, and metaphors, which depict her Southern Dialect she was familiar with to express realism. The gender roles Kingsolver portrays is also unique; Kingsolver represents how women are very courageous and brave while being able to survive on their own, unlike The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien and In Cold Blood by Truman Capote where males serve as the dominant characters. What makes Kingsolver’s texts her

In The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver uses characters and symbols to show that families are not genetically made up, rather built from love and support. As Kingsolver establishes the dynamic roles of Taylor Greer upon meeting Turtle and Lou Ann Ruiz throughout the novel, she also includes the symbolic significance of the rhizobia to illuminate the message of The Bean Trees.

Imagine trying to flee your country in the pursuit of freedom and a better life? The Bean Trees is about Americans who have different thoughts about immigrants coming to the United States. Barbara Kingsolver defines the immigrant experience in The Bean Trees through discrimination, making friends, and protecting those in need.

There is a certain extent of selfishness in everyone’s life, and that is an irrefutable fact. People have been consumed by their desires. Willpower is a moral resistance against inner desires, but it is only limited. It is the foundation to the construction of one’s success and happiness, yet where it may lack, may inevitably be one’s downfall.

Johnny’s internal issues are as equally grievous as his external issues. He practically raised his siblings since he was six years old, and started to work in factories when he was seven. Due to his early start transferring to adulthood, he never really had the chance to experience a jovial and enjoyable childhood. Johnny “had been robbed of a large part of that playtime by being compelled to take care of [his siblings] … he had fallen the part of little mother and father as well” (8). Johnny does not have any pleasurable memories to look back on and confirm that his upbringing readied him to steadily transition to adulthood. His mother is not a major help in his life, consequently making him uphold both roles of provider and supporter when it comes to his family. With no time for himself, it was evident in Johnny’s face that “there was no joyousness in him…

Humans have the same characteristics as the main characters in the two stories I have wrote about. In masque of the red death the author Edgar Allan Poe writes about a man named prospero who is a prince of a kingdom and tries to save himself Prospero and the highest of his friends but something goes terribly wrong. Also in the story of How much Land Does A Man Need is written by a man from Russia named Leo Tolstoy who bases his story on a man named Pahom who is a peasant and works his way up with his greediness but his greediness catches up with him and the less expected happens. Pahom and Prospero both have the desire of keeping getting more but Prospero is both selfish and they just don't think of other people.