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Strength Of Women In The Bean Trees

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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

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