The Growth of Marietta in Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees

It is ironic that she left Kentucky to avoid getting pregnant, and then right in the beginning of her journey she is thrown into motherhood. When Turtle was flung upon her Taylor really just went with the flow and seemed calm, but she was terrified. She says, “I realized I had no business just assuming I could take responsibility for a child’s life” (186). She knows that she took on a huge responsibility but once her love for Turtle grew she knew that she wanted to accept that responsibility and in return she gains Turtle’s love back. The courage she started out with before this trip has now grown and it’s helping her in a positive way by allowing her to help out this abandoned young child.

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

All these characters had different personalities and each character was lovable in their own way.

The character who changed the most from beginning to end in The Bean Trees was Lou Ann Ruiz. When Taylor first meets Lou Ann, she has just been left by her husband, Angel, to raise her newborn son, Dwayne Ray, alone. Despite this Lou Ann still wishes for her husband to return because she believes that a marriage should last forever. Throughout the story, Lou Ann goes from relying on her husband to unbuckle her shoes for her to becoming an independent, single mother.

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver is a romance novel that takes place in the late 1900s. It captures the journey of Taylor Greer from Pittman County, Kentucky all the way to Tucson, Arizona. Along the way, Taylor gains a young Indian toddler that was forced into her car while she was leaving a bar in Oklahoma. Taylor decides to keep the child once she recognizes the abuse the toddler experienced in her old home, she names her Turtle. Through thecharacterization of Taylor, Turtle, and Esperanza, Kingsolver suggests that in order for the characters to begin anew, they must experience a symbolic death.

The Courage to Change Ultimately the book, The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, is about having courage and strength to better your life. Throughout the book, Taylor has taken many steps of courage to hopefully change her life for the better. Taylor left Pittman County to start a new beginning, she had the courage to take in a child like it was her own almost immediately after leaving Pittman County, and she risked her life to take Estevan and Esperanza with her to Oklahoma. “Courage doesn’t mean you don’t get afraid. Courage means you don’t let fear stop you.”

Perseverance is essential for anyone to overcome conflicts, and an important literacy element throughout both pieces of literature. In a scholastic article “Brief History Women’s Rights Movements it states, “The force of the Women’s Rights Movement, spearheaded by NOW, was brought to bear on the major issue of the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution.” Together women have been facing equal right issues, and have been persevering together to have those rights. This relates to the Bean Trees because Lou Ann pregnant finds out her husband Angel left, and she has to persevere through a difficult time. She overcomes her hatred towards her appearance, and finds a job!

In the novel The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver and the autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, both the authors write in the perspective of girls who overcome obstacles in their lives and gradually grow into strong women. Both girls eventually find their self-worth and the places to which they belong. Taylor, the main character of The Bean Trees, is a studious white girl who dreams of traveling to escape her hometown and to avoid being pregnant. The main character of the other book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Marguerite (Maya), is a black girl with strong sense of insecurity. Although these two girls have very different experiences and live in different time periods, they tread through similar path of struggle with perseverance and

One day, Newt and his mother, Jolene, were brought into the lab. Newt had attacked his mother then killed himself afterward. After the overwhelming experience, Missy decides to buy herself a car to travel out of the small town in Kentucky. Wanting to start out fresh, Missy renames herself after a city her car runs out of gas in-

Imagine trying to flee your country in the pursuit of freedom and a better life? The Bean Trees is about Americans who have different thoughts about immigrants coming to the United States. Barbara Kingsolver defines the immigrant experience in The Bean Trees through discrimination, making friends, and protecting those in need.

A Search for Something New One’s individuality is what sets them apart from everyone else. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver develops the story of a very strong woman, Taylor Greer who has made it her goal to establish her own individuality. This novel follows the once named Marietta Greer on her journey from her roots in Pittman County, Kentucky to her new adventure out west where she changes her name, her outlooks, and her way of life. On the journey to self-discovery, Taylor realizes that she must discover how to balance her individualism with her family community.

In her Romance novel The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver alternates a pair of first person narratives to tell the story of Taylor Greer, a spunky girl who escapes her home and travels west. Throughout her journey, Kingsolver exposes many themes; however, the debate of “Legality vs. Morality” while decision-making is one of the most prominent. During Taylor’s travels, she experiences two major instances which center around this controversy - the issue of illegal adoptions and the process of sheltering immigrants. Ultimately, Kingsolver uses these occurrences to show that morals are the best method to use while making a decision. In her novel The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver uses the examples of Turtle’s adoption and Mattie’s sanctuary to prove

Thee most inspiring issue or aspect of The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, in my view, is the relationships and independence shown by the female characters. Women like Taylor and Lou Ann show a close and loving relationship towards each other. Individually, both of them show lots of strength and very little weakness emotionally from their day to day of their lives. They relate many ways since both are single moms taking care of a child by themselves. The independence shown by these two is remarkable even by our modern world.

The character Taylor, from The Bean Trees by Barbra Kingsolver, is a newly found foster parent to a little girl known as Turtle. Taylor takes the previously abused child in and cares for and loves her very much. The situations of parenthood can be difficult as is, and Taylor took it head on all at once. I believe her decision to take Turtle from a stranger the night when she was at a small bar on her way to her destiny was a good idea. The poor child could have otherwise been left stranded or abused even more than what she had been, sexually molested and physically. At this point, it could be believed that Taylor would do anything for Turtle because she loves the child with every part of her being, even if it means losing everything and having

Have you ever come across a time in your life that changed the way you are or has made you become aware of something? Most people have had this happen to them they have gone through rough times or happy times which changes them, not only mentally but emotionally. This has happened in books such as The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver and the book Gifted hands by Ben Carson. Barbara Kingsolver’s story The Bean Trees is a story about a young woman named Missy who after getting a job and earning enough money to buy a car decides to go off on her own and leaves her mother. In her travels she meets different people and is faced with different adversities and also a baby that will change her life. These events changes who she is and what she thought