The Bean Trees Character Analysis

PARA 2: Miss Eva Turner plays a vital role in Mattie's life by taking her in during her loneliness and destitution and treating Mattie and Basil as if they are her own family.

Taylor Greer is the primary protagonist of the adventurous tale taking place throughout multiple states in America, The Bean Trees. Taylor is girl from a town of simpletons, and she wants to escape that and live freely somewhere else. The Bean Trees is written by Barbra Kingsolver, an acclaimed author, and the story is about Taylor and her life after leaving a small town in Kentucky to find happiness. Taylor is a very complex person with a number of defining characteristics such as devotion, strength, and affection that make it possible for her to have such a mediocre story.

Soon after being deserted on the road, grandfather comes down with a summer grippe and becomes helpless. Mattie then needs to take care of them both by finding food and water. This shows responsibility because she not only had to take care of herself, but of her grandfather too with no help from anyone, and no one to tell her what to do.

Mattie was smart. She remembered everything her grandpa taught her. She saw Willow trees and remembered this trick: find a Willow tree and you will soon see water nearby. She saw raspberries, and knew that rabbits were nearby. She is the reason why her and her grandfather survived. Her personal traits that helped her get through this was the

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.

Mattie Michael grew up in Tennessee with her family and the father of her child, Butch Fuller. Everyone tells her to avoid him, including Butch himself who warns her saying, “eating cane is like living life. You gotta know when to stop chewing– when to stop trying to wrench every last bit of sweetness out of a wedge…. trick is to spit it out when the wedge is still firm… It’s hard, but you gotta spit it out right then, or you gonna find yourself chewing on nothin’ but straw in that last round” (18). Butch clearly tells her about how he he lives his life, and his issue with staying, yet, Mattie makes the mistake of getting herself involved which leads to her being impregnated by him. This results in her father savagely beating her to the point where she has to flee to Chicago and start her life alone raising her son. Though, Mattie gets through all of this and finds herself in the grace of Ms. Eva who shelters her. Then, after getting the house after Ms. Eva’s death,

In the famous poem The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus, America is deemed a land of “world wide welcome” for those who seek a new place to call home. The Statue of Liberty is established early on in the piece as a symbol of freedom and protection, a statue symbolic of the spirit of America. In the piece, Lazarus refers to immigrants as the “poor, huddled masses” to whom the United States offers a pair of open “golden doors.” However, many immigrants today feel far removed from the land of freedom referenced in The New Colossus. The promise of a blue sky with endless possibilities is far from reality for the Americans that the poem calls the huddled masses. It is clear that America’s promise of freedom and opportunity, characterized by the

Mattie is a fourteen year old girl, who has the responsibilities of an adult, which was expected of people that age in this time period. “[Mattie] kept his books for him”(keeping the books means keeping track of the money) said Mattie when she was explaining why she knew how much money her father had (Portis 15). This quote is interesting because it exhibits the amount of responsibility that was put upon her even at a young age. Also, Mattie seems to have the best math skills in her family despite having a mother and father much older than her. Mattie told Yarnell, (who is an African American that works for Mattie's family) “Yarnell said ‘you can't stay in the city by yourself’ [Mattie] said ‘It will be alright’” (Portis 26). Mattie is going to stay in the city by herself without her mom knowing when she will return, or what her sleeping arrangements are. It is strange because she is a young girl in a city alone with nobody to protect her, and her mother has no idea what is going on. Mattie told the sheriff “[I’am] looking for the man who shot and killed my father” (Poti 59). Mattie is not asking the sheriff to find the man and bring him to

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

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 Mattie is definitely a strong character. When Taylor meets Mattie she is surprised. Back in Pittman, where Taylor is from a woman would never own and run a tire store all by herself. Mattie may not be gaining much

Mattie is past the threshold and ready to take on the unknown world. In a hero’s journey it states “as the initiate goes deeper into the unknown, she puts herself more and more at risk, emotionally and physically…. The initiate faces a series of challenges or temptations (51 Harris and Thompson). This begins when, she catches up to the two men she says, “He pulled me from the saddle and threw me to

Mattie is the older character in this book that was owned “Jesus is Lord Tires” and was a character that acted as a mother to multiple characters. “She looked at me the way Mama would have,” (Kingsolver 252). This quote was found near the end of the book that signified Mattie looking at Taylor and Taylor observing that look and thinking that it is similar to her real mother’s. Mattie gave some money to Taylor for the trip and Taylor refused to take it, so Mattie said that it was for everyone in the car and gave her the look that reminded Taylor of her biological mother. “’I’ve got some peanut butter crackers,’ Mattie said leaning over Turtle. ‘Will she eat peanut butter?’,” (Kingsolver 252). Mattie seemed worried about Turtle and offered her something to eat. She acted as a mother figure to Turtle because she fed her and gave her more food when Turtle hinted for it. Mattie was the one that fit as a mother figure to a lot of characters in the book. She was the person that led a sanctuary and was the one who took care of the many.

(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

Mattie is now in the initiation step of the journey, where she will go through four parts; the first part is the challenges and the second is the abyss. Anywhere that Mattie went she faced challenges as how the hero’s journey’s writes, “Whichever direction the voyage takes… [she] puts [herself] more and more at risk, emotionally and physically…. always seem to strike the initiate’s greatest weakness: [her] poorest skills… [Her] most vulnerable emotions” (Harris and Thompson 51). A challenge that we see Mattie puts herself at risk and show her weakness is when see faces Tom Chaney and says,