Theme Statement For The Bean Trees

In addition to how the will was fulfilled, another reason that was brought into the book was about the fact Turtle’s life had been changed for the better. Throughout the book, she is ignored by her mother. Her mother favored Turtle’s older sister, Angela. Because T.R. won the game, she received the money start a new life. She went to school and graduated out of Business College. Because the book mentions this part of her life, the reader is convinced the book sums up the plot and main character’s life entirely. She also married one of the other sixteen heirs. His name was Theo. The will was the reason T.R. was introduced to Theo. Learning this convinces the reader that the book had a well-written ending. Because T.R. had found that Sam was still alive, she came to visit him

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.

In the beginning of the story we see that Taylor is an average teenage girl living with a single mother. She says, “But I stayed in school. I was not the smartest or even particularly outstanding but I was there and staying out of trouble” (3). She was called “Missy” for a lot of her childhood

The first social issue that Barbara Kingsolver wants to bring awareness to in The Bean Trees are refugees. Kingsolver sympathizes for the tall hurdles that refugees must overcome. She wants to prove that people who are not from America have the same value as those who are. In order to express this, Kingsolver uses Turtle as a symbol of the refugees as she was also separated from her parents and taken to a foreign land. By the end of the novel, Turtle finds a home within Taylor which is symbolic for Kingsolver's opinion that all refugees deserve a loving, accessible home. Virgie Parson is also a symbol for all Americans who have conservative political ideals and the nation’s haste towards allowing refugees and immigrants into our country. Although Virgie is not portrayed as evil, she is portrayed as having no sympathy for the consequences that alienating these aliens from our country will have and not thinking about the moral implications. By providing a happy ending for almost all the character, Kingsolver demonstrates how Refugees and American can both live peacefully as one.

Taylor is raised in a non-traditional setting; her mother, Alice Greer, is a single mother takes care of Taylor by herself. Alice had been married before, but her husband told her not to get pregnant and so when she did he left, and she tells Taylor that this was the best deal she ever made. She is extremely supportive of Taylor, in all that she does, but also expects the very best from her. Taylor knows this saying “then no matter what I did, whatever I came home with, she acted like it was the moon I had just hung up in the sky and plugged in all the stars. Like I was that good” (Kingsolver 10). Alice takes on both the

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

Due to the difference in Taylor’s children’s behaviors, her parenting skills would have been divergent as well. In Arizona, Taylor had to move at a much slower pace with Turtle because of the trepidation she was filled with from her previous home life. After months of being together, three-year-old Turtle finally utters her first word to Taylor “‘Bean,’ Turtle said. ‘Humbean’” (Kingsolver 97). This reveals how much more effort it took Taylor to reach out to her daughter. In Arizona she had a much more abrupt maturing into a woman and mother than if she had stayed in her hometown. Taylor had to grow up significantly faster than if she had gone through the process of pregnancy in Pittman. There, Taylor would be able to become more mentally and physically prepared for being a mother.

She is quickly promoted to floor manager, which boosts her confidence and makes her more comfortable telling people what to do. Even Taylor notices Lou Ann’s new found self assurance and sees she has stopped cutting her hair and insulting herself as much. She described the job as “smoothing out Lou Ann’s edges.” Lou Ann seems to become less neurotic about safety. She tells Taylor, “You can’t promise a kid that nothing will hurt them. All you can promise is that you’ll take care of them the best you can, Lord willing and the creeks don’t rise, you just hope for the best.” Lou Ann also begins to stand up to others, yelling at Taylor for abandoning Turtle and encouraging her to fight back and not give up hope. When Taylor thinks she is going to lose Turtle, Lou Ann encourages her to take action and “do something stupid.” If this had happened in the beginning of the book, Lou Ann would have just accepted it and said there was no other way around it. Despite the fact Lou Ann originally wanted Angel back, in the end she decides to divorce him. After speaking to Angel’s mother she realizes that it was not her fault he left her and that he “always wants what he can’t have.” Lou Ann begins to date a man she claims, “Six months ago would’ve scared the living daylights out of me just to have to walk by him on the

She has trouble time figuring out the history behind Pittsburgh. The things she’s read about it was the dinosaurs, American Indians, and the American Revolution. She starts to embrace her drawings as a hobby and spends much time doing it.Annie mostly draws historical events Annie’s friend Judy invites her to their family’s country house. Judy’s family are very bright people and know a lot about american which annie loves about them. She uses going to the country house to do more reading and exploring the outdoors with her imagination. Annie starts to read more historical books, like world war two and the cold war. Annie starts high school, but her family status seems to be the biggest focus for other, much like her race and religious beliefs. She begins to have more understanding about american history and the city in which she is living in. Annie’s father has a strong belief that success can go a long way if you can work for it. Annie starts to give more dedication into school after her father made that clear. Towards the end of high school, she gets into bad situations such as getting into many problems and crashing a

A positive mind is what is needed the most for when you are trying to make a huge life decision. In The Bean Trees we see some characters that have the biggest hearts and open minds. This leads to them caring for other people, even if they are not related, even if they just met them. There is this article named “Brainology” that talks about the impact and the importance of having a open, or what they call a growth mindset. The idea is that with a growth mindset you are more likely not to give up on challenges right away. Whereas a fixed mindset as soon as you fail you feel as if you’re not going to get it and you give up. We see this in the book throughout the whole story. We see this esoechaily with the mother figures, even though Lou Anne has low self esteem and frightened of everything we see her build her confidence throughout the book. We see this mindset with Esmeralda, helping Taylor out in the end with a really big favor. We even see this with the social worker that questions Taylor. She sees that Taylor really cares for Turtle and goes out of her way to help her adopt her. This growth mindset runs through all the women in the story because they have to be driven in order to have a good life.

Taylor, Turtle When someone reads a book and they notice something important, they usually write it down, or mark in the book, in this novel turtles are that one word that makes everyone hooked from the start. In the novel The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver there are many symbols that get make the person reading it, to wonder what will go on, and turtles are the one symbol that made me want to read on. Taylor Greer the main character in the book lived in Oklahoma, and moved away to get away from having a baby, but when she finds her a new home, a baby finds her. She ends up naming the child Turtle, and she doesn’t even know how old she is.

With Taylor walking into the footsteps of motherhood she has examples to help her with like Esperanza and Lou Ann. As Taylor first takes Turtle an bath she realize on Turtle being “a girl, poor thing. That fact had already burdened her short

Taylor left willingly and by her own choice and could not wait to leave her home. Turtle, Estevan, and Esperanza on the other hand did not want to leave their homelands. Taylor left her home willingly, which is different than the other three characters. Taylor saves up her money from her job at the hospital and uses it to purchase a car and “in this car [she] intended to drive out of Pittman County one day and never look back, except maybe for Mama,” (14). Taylor does everything in her power to make sure that she will eventually get out of Pittman County one day. Even Taylor’s mom knew that “the day [Taylor] brought it home, she knew [Taylor] was going to get away,” from the place she has called home for so many years (14). Taylor is sick of living in her hometown and she feels trapped. She is itching to get away and leave and start a new life unlike Turtle, Estevan, and Esperanza. No one cares about Turtle or where she ends up (until Taylor) and she has no choice when it came to leaving her home on the Cherokee Nation. Turtle is just given away without a thought put into it and Taylor has to explain to Turtle’s aunt that“even if you wanted to, you can’t just give somebody a kid,” but that does not seem to stop her (24). Turtle’s aunt just gives Turtle away without any explanation and tells Taylor to “take this baby,”(23). Turtle is so little she has no clue what is going on. She does not know that this is the last time that she will probably ever see her homeland. Estevan and his wife Esperanza had to leave their homeland because if they did not they would of been killed because of the teacher’s union that they belonged to. The couple are “more useful alive than dead,” because they are so involved within the Union (184). They knew so much that it would be bad if they were killed and in order to not be killed they had to flee the place they loved. Estevan and

She lost another love by the name of Oluf, could not find much work, and lost hard-earned money through a bad business investment. After all this peril she took Russell and Doris and moved to Baltimore. Another move equaled more stress, less money, and more struggling to get by. With what seemed to be the world against her, she made it. She remarried, bought a house, and became the success she demanded of herself. Every step of the way Russell was exposed to all the ups and downs. His mother’s life during those times shaped and influenced his own.