The Bean Trees Taylor Character Analysis

In this work, Taylor is trying to prove how fearless she was at a young age and the extraordinary

In the book The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, the main character, Taylor Greer, leaves her hometown of Pittman, Kentucky to start a new life with her new “daughter”, Turtle. Taylor first follows the American Dream by changing her name from Marietta to Taylor. Her new identity was a pivotal moment in moving forward from her old life when she passed the town, Taylorville and believed “there was enough destiny in it to satisfy me”(16). Taylor soon starts her life by meeting Lou Ann, a single mother to Dwayne Ray, and decides to live with her. This symbolizes Taylor settling down and officially staying in Tucson, Arizona (101). Other characters who define the American Dream are Esperanza and Estevan. They had to flee from Guatemala because they were apart of the Teachers Union and many people were after them trying to kill them. Esperanza’s brother and friends were killed and her daughter, Ismene, was taken from her and Estevan on

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.

Turtle and Taylor end up living in Tucson, Arizona. Taylor finds a job and a place to stay. While she is in Tucson she starts to recognize that there are a lot of people in the world that have gone through much worse situations than she has. She tells Estevan, "I keep finding out that life can be hard in ways I never knew about" (141). She is growing out of her naiveness and learning more about the realities of life. This in turn is making her a more understanding and

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.

She was never exposed to a trauma or suffering before; hence her ignorance to what might potentially hurt her. However, this scene provided Taylor with an eye opening experience for her, as she becomes more appreciative for her blessings, which can be confirmed on the scene following it, where she sees the world in a new light. Throughout her entire life, she has been trying to resist pregnancy and involvement with men, and now she counts them as her blessings, hence her companionship with Estevan and Turtle/April. This verifies that she is preparing herself for parenthood. In many ways, this scene gives a pinnacle point in both these characters, establishing trust and reliance with them as they both share something new about them, signaling a positive shift in their friendship. Listening to the horrors of Estevan’s past generates a calamity for Taylor. She begins to grasp the capability for malice in the world. Estevan mentioned the idea that Taylor has preferred not to realize the horrors in other nations. There have been preceding chapters that Taylor will discount what it might pain her to realize. However, this scene creates awareness for her to count her blessings and prepare herself for the long journey of raising Turtle. Conversely, when Taylor found herself cuddling with Estevan, not only did she establish respect for him after this scene, but also with

The influence of being raised by a single mother and the environment around Taylor leaves her determined to avoid motherhood and after finishing high school, leaving Pittman in favor of a more interesting life. Doing so makes her realize she is completely unprepared to take care of a child when she decides to keep Turtle. As she gradually starts spending more time with Turtle and living with Lou Ann, however, she learns what it is like to be a single mother, and grows confident in her abilities of taking care of Turtle. Moreover, she even helps Lou Ann gain more confidence in herself, setting an example of being an independent woman and even encouraging Lou Ann get a job. When Lou Ann does get a job, Taylor notices that Lou Ann “finally stopped comparing her figure to various farm animals. Having a job seemed to even out some of Lou Ann’s wrinkled edges” (205). Lou Ann learned to stop worrying over her appearance all the time and demeaning herself, showing the influence Taylor had over her life. Taylor’s presence helped Lou Ann realize that maybe she does not need to fit the mold society has set for her, and that she can be her own person instead. She uses that newfound confidence to help Taylor when her confidence in caring for Turtle diminishes. Taylor believes she is unfit to take care of Turtle after Turtle gets attacked, but Lou Ann does not let Taylor mope

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

The commencement of the plot portrays Taylor to be a confident and gutsy woman who does not want to be tied down to her

Throughout The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, Marietta “Missy” Greer goes through many changes. For example, she changes her name to Taylor, adopts a child, and experiences life-changing events. When she left Pittman County, she probably did not expect to have a family that she avoided having in the beginning. Taylor left her home in Kentucky because she did not want to end up like all the other girls who did not finish school, got married early, and did not have much to look forward to in life. Taylor wanted a better life for herself so she left and made a new life in Tucson, Arizona. Some significant items that changed Taylor’s life along the way were Lou Ann’s ad in the newspaper, a photo of her with Estevan after Esperanza’s suicide attempt, and Turtle’s custody documents. These items are very meaningful because they play an important role in Taylor’s new life

Anaïs Nin dared to question the norm of society; she asked “how wrong is it for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself?” The two main characters in the novel, The Bean Trees, written by Barbara Kingsolver, are two young women who share a common struggle, Taylor Greer and Lou Anne Ruiz. The book changes protagonist between Taylor and Lou Anne whom are complete opposites. However they both deal with their hardships together in Tucson, Arizona. Most women end up pregnant and dependent on their spouse just like Lou Anne. Both of these protagonists learn from each other to improve their lifestyles. Women are not dependent on men; life is what you decide to do not society’s trends.

Taylor Greer has lived in Kentucky all her life. Yet, the life available to her in Kentucky is not what she always dreamed of: "none of these sights had so far inspired me to get hogtied to a future as a tobacco farmer's wife" (3). Living with her mother, Taylor becomes more independent and striven to find a better life. Taylor's father disappeared before she could even remember

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.

(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