The Bean Trees Character Analysis

Sacrifices made in the novel The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, signifies strong femininity through the main character, Taylor Greer. The Bean Trees follows an idealistic and optimistic journey of Taylor as she caravanned across the country from the bare fields of Kentucky to the “fluffy rocks” of Arizona. A family is a huge thing to most everyone, but not everyone has a strong family. Using active dynamic characters and sacrificial elements, Kingsolver perfectly illuminates the triumphs of Greer. In the course of reading the novel, there is ultimately a plethora of unexchangeable events that lead the reader to presume that the author wants women to be empowered and know they can do anything without a male in their life.

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.

There are many relationships in bean trees, and the author focuses on females and their family relationships. Taylor and Turtle is one of the main major part in the book. For example, when Tylor first meet turtle, they leave as a new form of family. Most people think family is people who are related with you in blood like parents, sisters, and brothers. However, family is more than that, what family mean is love, care, and you feel safe with them. When Taylor moved in with Lou Ann and her son, her family becomes even bigger than before. They support and help each other in difficult situations by sharing their experiences. Taylor makes many risks to keep turtle with her as a family. She starts taking care of her, and make sure that she is safe. The major theme in the beam trees was family formed, and Tylor starts consider Turtle her family when she start taking care of her appearance, taking care of her heath, and making sure she is safe.

In the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the main character, Lily Owens struggles with the notion that she killed her mother and has to live with her abusive, neglectful father, T-Ray. Throughout, Lily searches for information about her mother and why she left her. Unexpectedly, she stumbles upon new mother figures that play an important role in changing Lily to the person she is in later. The typical sequence of a hero’s journey includes a departure, initiation and trials, and reintegration into society. By the end, Lily Owens developes into a more mature, independent young women after experiencing a difficult childhood.

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.

In The Bean Trees, Taylor is consistently faced with a lack of choice. She decides to leave home, but on her way she stops at a bar and a woman puts a child in her car and leaves before Taylor can stop her. When she gets to a motel “[she] pulled off the pants and the diapers there were more bruises. Bruises and worse.” (31) The child abandoned had been sexually molested, making raising her a much harder burden since the child had experienced “a kind of misery [Taylor] could not imagine.” (31) Yet although the child, who Taylor names Turtle, is “just somebody [she] got stuck with” (70), she cares for her and she becomes like her own child. However, finding work and raising a child isn’t easy and “[she] was starting to go a little bit crazy. This is how it is when all the money you have can fit in one pocket, and you have no job, and no prospects.” (66) Taylor also realizes “that [her] whole life had been running along on dumb luck and [she] hadn’t even noticed.” She hadn’t been making any choices, just running with whatever life threw her way. Taylor finally realizes her luck has run out when she learns “[i]f a child has no legal guardian she becomes a ward of the state.” Turtle was not legally adopted by Taylor and therefore she could be taken away. Taylor now has the choice to either fight for Turtle or give up, but Taylor is convinced she doesn’t have a choice at all. Her friend Lou Ann calls her out on this, claiming “there’s got to be some way around them taking her, and

Secondly, Barbara Kingsolver want to defend the ideas of alternative parenthood. In The Bean Trees, Kingsolver implicates many forms of parenting option such as single motherhood, teenage pregnancy, and adopted families. In the society in which The Bean Trees take place, a lot of these alternate forms of parenting are look down upon and are considered ‘less than’ when compared to a traditional

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.

When one is raised in a single family, life appears simple. The person has developed an attachment to their parents. He or she is also familiar with one particular society, and the norms of that society are established in their mindset. However, when a second family from an entirely different culture enters the picture, the simple life becomes more complicated. The cultures of the two families are so different that they clash with one another, leaving the one person between it all. It is a dilemma that a six-year-old girl named Turtle Greer must experience in the novel, Pigs In Heaven, by Barbara Kingsolver. Turtle is a young girl who was adopted by a loving mother named Taylor Greer. The two had lived

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,

Psychological consequences of child abuse and neglect include the immediate effects of isolation, fear and inability to trust. The Bean Trees,by Barbara Kingsolver, has a main character Taylor who is leaving her hometown and looking for a new place to be. On her trip to Arizona, she runs into a little bump, an Indian woman leaves a baby in Taylor’s car. The baby’s clothes are soaked in urine and her body is covered in bruises, specifically bruises that would Taylor to believing that she has been sexually abused. Taylor takes care of the baby and gives her the name Turtle. Taylor’s car takes a toll on itself and she stops in Tucson, Arizona where she ends up meeting and staying with Lou Ann. Lou Ann is also a single parent who provides a

(AGG) When losing someone you dearly love, your world is turned around, Nusrat shows us her journey through loss and healing in the chapters of this novel. (BS-1) First, Nusrat loses her sister, Margaret, and struggles after losing someone so close to her to later question her religion. (BS-2) Then, Nusrat disconnects with her parents slowly after she converts to Islam and begins to start a new life. (BS-3) Lastly, At the end Nusrat loses her husband, Faiz and begins to reconnect her relationship with her parents. (TS) In the novel Under the Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples, Nusrat loses multiple important people who understand her the most, she has to cope with living without the people who have had such a positive impact on her