Single Motherhood In The Bean Trees

Emelie Carranza, period 6 Eng 10, Ms. Reid 7 October 2014 ORP 1 Dialectical Journal MLA Citation: Kingsolver, Barbara. The Bean Trees. New York: Harper & Row, 1988. Print.

In this work, Taylor is trying to prove how fearless she was at a young age and the extraordinary

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.

In the beginning Taylor was determined to have her freedom, but once Turtle comes into her life she recognizes the worth in caring about someone other than herself. Taylor is more compassionate and loving thanks to Turtle.

The Bean Trees there are many themes but one of them could be “The Shared Burden of Womanhood”. This book is like many others, all moves around the same theme and literary devices that we use today. Most of them have the same concept. In “The Bean Tress” and “The Sun Rises” symbolism and figurative language is used.

She was never exposed to a trauma or suffering before; hence her ignorance to what might potentially hurt her. However, this scene provided Taylor with an eye opening experience for her, as she becomes more appreciative for her blessings, which can be confirmed on the scene following it, where she sees the world in a new light. Throughout her entire life, she has been trying to resist pregnancy and involvement with men, and now she counts them as her blessings, hence her companionship with Estevan and Turtle/April. This verifies that she is preparing herself for parenthood. In many ways, this scene gives a pinnacle point in both these characters, establishing trust and reliance with them as they both share something new about them, signaling a positive shift in their friendship. Listening to the horrors of Estevan’s past generates a calamity for Taylor. She begins to grasp the capability for malice in the world. Estevan mentioned the idea that Taylor has preferred not to realize the horrors in other nations. There have been preceding chapters that Taylor will discount what it might pain her to realize. However, this scene creates awareness for her to count her blessings and prepare herself for the long journey of raising Turtle. Conversely, when Taylor found herself cuddling with Estevan, not only did she establish respect for him after this scene, but also with

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.

The first social issue that Barbara Kingsolver wants to bring awareness to in The Bean Trees are refugees. Kingsolver sympathizes for the tall hurdles that refugees must overcome. She wants to prove that people who are not from America have the same value as those who are. In order to express this, Kingsolver uses Turtle as a symbol of the refugees as she was also separated from her parents and taken to a foreign land. By the end of the novel, Turtle finds a home within Taylor which is symbolic for Kingsolver's opinion that all refugees deserve a loving, accessible home. Virgie Parson is also a symbol for all Americans who have conservative political ideals and the nation’s haste towards allowing refugees and immigrants into our country. Although Virgie is not portrayed as evil, she is portrayed as having no sympathy for the consequences that alienating these aliens from our country will have and not thinking about the moral implications. By providing a happy ending for almost all the character, Kingsolver demonstrates how Refugees and American can both live peacefully as one.

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.

In the book The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver characters show female strength which supports the idea that when difficult situations occur, women need each other to lean on through hardships. Everyone has hard times when we need others’ support to help get us through, like the characters do in the book The Bean Trees.

The strength of the female population is constantly increasing. Women are gaining the courage to be stronger and more independent. Women are proving that they are just as strong as men, they are becoming CEO’s and running for president. Barbara Kingsolver wrote these three main supporting characters going through difficult events, but making it through them with the strength they have as single females. The female strength in these three women is one of the main themes in the book The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver.

Anaïs Nin dared to question the norm of society; she asked “how wrong is it for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself?” The two main characters in the novel, The Bean Trees, written by Barbara Kingsolver, are two young women who share a common struggle, Taylor Greer and Lou Anne Ruiz. The book changes protagonist between Taylor and Lou Anne whom are complete opposites. However they both deal with their hardships together in Tucson, Arizona. Most women end up pregnant and dependent on their spouse just like Lou Anne. Both of these protagonists learn from each other to improve their lifestyles. Women are not dependent on men; life is what you decide to do not society’s trends.

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,

Community is defined as a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common. Throughout the Bean Trees, the common element that binds the characters is selflessness and the unwavering generosity that presents itself through their actions. The most prominent characters guilty of such altruistic endeavors are coincidently the main characters, Taylor, Lou Ann, Mattie, Estevan and Esperanza. Each of these people show a tight bond with each other and those around them that is reminiscent of family, the ultimate community.