In The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver and My Ántonia by Willa Cather, four female characters exhibit the weaknesses and strengths of women. Taylor Greer and Lou Ann Ruiz in The Bean Trees employ the weaknesses and strengths of females, through conversations, and events that they take part in, in which they choose whether or not to sacrifice pride of fear. Lena Lingard and Ántonia Shimerda in My Ántonia demonstrate the strengths of women who sacrifice pride through breaking expectations and roles. The strength of women is vital to avoid being taken advantage of by others. To be recognized as strong, a woman must first sacrifice a smaller aspect of herself through breaking gender roles or societal expectations, to prove the confidence contained by a …show more content…
Taylor Greer portrays a strong empowered woman when she sacrifices herself by putting herself in danger and breaking the societal expectations. A strong woman can be defined as confident and risk-taking. Taylor constantly fits this definition in The Bean Trees. When she has stopped to eat dinner on her trip, Taylor has a conversation with a man in the diner that demonstrates her sense of confidence. Taylor points out that one of the men with her in the room looks as though he is “looking for trouble” (Kingsolver 21). However, when the man insults her current financial situation, Taylor retorts and asks him, “You think being busted is a joke?..”(Kingsolver 21). Taylor then “slid[es] the bottle back and hit his beer mug dead center...” (Kingsolver 21). She is sacrificing her safety by picking a fight with a dangerous looking man, but she is willing to do this to stand up for herself. This breaks the gender roles and societal expectations of her time and area. Women were expected to stay quiet and go along with what men were saying. Another example of Taylor sacrificing her safety to be a strong woman is when she makes her decision to drive Esperanza and Estevan to a
In this work, Taylor is trying to prove how fearless she was at a young age and the extraordinary
In the beginning of the story we see that Taylor is an average teenage girl living with a single mother. She says, “But I stayed in school. I was not the smartest or even particularly outstanding but I was there and staying out of trouble” (3). She was called “Missy” for a lot of her childhood
In the story "Woman Hollering Creek" Sandra Cisneros discusses the issues of living life as a married woman through a character named Cleofilas; a character who is married to a man who abuses her physically and mentally .Cisneros reveals the way the culture puts a difference between a male and a female, men above women. Cisneros has been famous about writing stories about the latino culture and how women are treated; she explain what they go through as a child, teen and when they are married; always dominated by men because of how the culture has been adapted. "Woman Hollering Creek" is one of the best examples. A character who grows up without a mother and who has no one to guid and give her advise about life.
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.
The book The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, is a coming of age story about a young girl, Taylor, that is thrust into motherhood when a baby is left in her car. Taylor however, is not the only example of a mother in the story. There is Lou Ann and Esperanza, both literal mothers, but only one of them has their child to take care of. There is Mattie, one of the first people that Taylor meet in Tucson, and who becomes almost a surrogate-mother for both her, and also the refugees that she shelters. In all of the both literal and figurative examples of motherhood in the story, none of them really fit into the idea of a traditional family setting. Kingsolver is expressing to the reader that being a successful mother does not rely on whether the family is “normal”, but rather being able to do the best for your children.
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.
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.
Before leaving on her journey west, Taylor had been living with her single mother, Alice Greer. Since the day Taylor was born, she and Alice both depended on each other for most everything. By leaving, Taylor was gaining independence for both her and her mother alike. In Arizona Taylor lived with Lou Ann Ruiz, a fellow Kentuckian who was also new to raising a child alone. Both Lou Ann and Taylor were able to discover new sides of themselves and learn how to live without the help of a man (in Lou Ann’s case), or
On her way to anywhere far from Kentucky, Taylor ends up with something she had been avoiding all her life: a child. Taylor stops to get coffee and leaves with a little Indian baby girl. A strange Indian woman appears from the middle of nowhere, "She opened up the blanket and took out something alive. It was a child. She wrapped her blanket around and around it until it became a round bundle with a head. Then she set this bundle down on the seat of my car. 'Take this baby,' she said" (17). Taylor is a strong and independent woman. But she did not know how to react in the occasion. Taylor uses dry, sarcastic, humor when she does not
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.
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,
American Literature has always been about men and for men. In this essay, we are going to analyze the women’s role in the book, as inferior and weaker gender.
Role of Women in Hemmingway's Hills like White Elephants, Lawrence's The Horse Dealers Daughter and Faulkner's A Rose for Emily
“Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway and “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood share a gender-oriented theme. They both show women struggling to attain equality against their male partners. This theme is depicted through the use of symbolism, point of view and plot conflict.