The Bean Trees, By Barbara Kingsolver

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 Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, three characters in particular undergo a catharsis, each in their own way: Esperanza, Turtle, and Taylor. This paper will focus on the change on the development of the character Esperanza, showing the suffering and difficulties, she has undergone and how through a catharsis, this suffering was ameliorated.

Life is constantly changing, like clouds in the sky; always shifting and turning. People never really know which way life will turn next, bringing them fortune or failure. When you look at how things change it is best to compare it to something that you can relate it to. The changeable nature of life can be related to the novel 'The Bean Trees.' This is a book written almost entirely on dealing with changes in the characters lives.

Epiphanies are central to the plots of many novels. In the novel The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingslover, the main character, Taylor Greer, has an epiphany that changes the course of her life. After Turtle is traumatized in the park, Taylor withdraws from her and the rest of the world, believing that no nothing she does truly matters. As Turtle improves, Taylor realizes that her positive actions do make the world a better place. When Turtle begins to talk again, Taylor has an epiphany and realizes that every small compassionate action is important and that even she can help make the world a better place. As a result of her epiphany, Taylor is more willing to help others. The positive results of Taylor’s epiphany are first shown when she decides to fight for custody of

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.

Birds are a personal symbol for Turtle’s development. Throughout the novel, birds are tied to Turtle and major events in her life. Turtle makes her first sound when the car stops suddenly to avoid a family of quail. “I slammed on the brakes and we all pitched forward… ‘I think that sound was a laugh’...In the road up ahead there was a quail, the type that has one big feather spronging out the front of its head like a forties-model ladies' hat. We could just make out that she was dithering back and forth in the road, and then we gradually could see that there were a couple dozen babies running around her every which way” (Kingsolver 106-107). Turtle and Taylor have become comfortable as a family and Turtle has recovered from her previous trauma to the point that she makes audible noises and expresses herself. Just as the family of Taylor and Turtle has brought joy to the lives of Lou Ann, Mattie, Esperanza and Estevan, this disruptive family of birds bring joy and laughter to Taylor and Turtle. When Taylor takes Turtle to the doctor and learns the extent of Turtle’s abuse, she sees a bird that has made its nest inside a cactus. “I looked through the bones to the garden on the other side. There was a cactus with bushy arms and a coat of yellow spines as thick as fur. A bird had built her nest in it. In and out she flew among the horrible spiny branches, never once hesitating. You just couldn't imagine how she'd made a home in there” (Kingsolver 137-138). Just as the bird has

Passage: He told me that the national symbol of the Indian people in Guatemala was the quetzal, a beautiful green bird with a long, long tail. I told him I had seen military macaws at the zoo, and wondered if the quetzal was anything like those. He said no. If you tried to keep this bird in a cage, it died (189)."

Marietta Greer, also known as Taylor Greer in the book The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, started a new life by leaving her home in Pittman County, Kentucky to avoid motherhood. Her life was full of ups, downs, blessings, hardships, dramatic events, and mixed feelings. The people she met in this new life such as Lou Ann, Mattie, Estevan, Esperanza, and especially Turtle, have created a positive outlook on Taylor’s life. Without ever meeting them, Taylor’s fresh new life would have been dull and confusing. Though there are also some memories that may have followed her as a fear, but it soon became a lucky asset to have in her life. The tractor tire, the photo of Turtle during their first night together, and Turtle’s adoption document are each a significant symbol of Taylor’s journey.

Barbara Kingsolver’s modern romance, The Bean Trees, tells the story of a young woman named Taylor Greer. Taylor is born in a small rural town and “gets away” so she can do bigger and better things. While driving cross-country, a woman leaves her a small child. Taylor raises names and raises this child, Turtle. She moves in with another single mom and works for Mattie, a woman who smuggles refugees. Taylor has multiple moments of lost innocence as she learns the true evils of the world, and she uses this to grow into a stronger person. In her novel, The Bean Trees, Kingsolver juxtaposes characters and settings that uphold gender stereotypes and that challenge them in order to convey the notion that those who break traditional gender roles

Barbara Kingsolver once said, “Good fiction creates empathy. A novel takes you somewhere and asks you to look through the eyes of another person, to live another life” (Barbara Kingsolver Quotes). Contemporary Literary Criticism includes authors’ critiques of Kingsolver’s novel, The Bean Trees, agreeing this quote “…imbues the reader with giddy feelings” (“Barbara Kingsolver”). Published in 1988, Kingsolver takes the reader on an emotional roller coaster with a manifold of feelings. Her novel, filled with friendship and survival, is set in the barren American Southwest, focusing on Taylor Greer’s search for a new life as she traveled across the country (“Barbara Kingsolver”). Kingsolver’s adventurous childhood in Kentucky, eye opening

When people plant seeds into the ground, the seeds usually bloom into a beautiful plant. However, with growth comes obstacles. Weather and roadblocks cause delays or disruptions in growth. It takes strength and courage to move past these obstacles, just as Taylor has throughout Kingsolver’s novel, The Bean Trees. In this novel, Kingsolver plants certain tones and social issues as a way to make it her own.

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

Everyone has someone they consider family. Sometimes people bond solely with their blood relatives, but more often than not we choose who we consider to be our family as we grow older. This happens most often when people find a spouse, but many also adopt children as their sons and daughters, peers as their brothers and sisters, and role model figures as aunts and uncles. The Bean Trees is written by Barbra Kingsolver and is set in the early 1980 's. It tells the story of a young woman named Taylor, and the life she builds in Tucson Arizona. Far from home, she meets many great people and finds a place where she belongs. Kingsolver shapes her message of the importance of families both blood and found through her use of character archetypes

From the moment you’re put into your parents arms you have a special relationship with them and you will always have this special bond. This relationship is different from the relationship we form with friends, the connections we formed with friends are by choice. But that doesn't mean that the relationship formed with your parents is any less valuable because it started as an involuntary relationship. In the novel The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver shows us that the relationships we form by choice are different from the relationships we form out of necessity. In doing this she also shows us that the relationships we form out of necessity are the most meaningful. Barbara Kingsolver shows us that the relationship she has with her mother, a necessary

“Jack and the Beanstalker,” by Sue and Allen Gallehugh is a story about a guy named Jack who sold the family cow to get the magic beans. Jacks mother threw the beans out the window because she was furious toward her son for selling the cow. The following mourning the garden, which normally grows wildly with weeds, had a giant beanstalk growing from it. Upon seeing the beanstalk, Jack decides to climb up it and finds this giant castle only a giant could live in. Jack finds his way into the castle where he sees the giant pick up this giant hen who lays a giant gold egg, which Jack immediately thinks this is the way to solve his money problems. When the giant fell asleep, Jack thinks this is the best time to try to steal the golden egg but he