Barbara Kingsolver’s Bean Trees is a fantastic novel in the way that it involves plenty of developing stories like microcosms which reflect the world we live in. Therefore, this book is filled with plenty of relatable characters and events or access points that allow the reader to connect to the book directly. For me, The Bean Trees has allowed me to delve into the action of moving from home, and has demonstrated its effects on self. When I was 7 years, I moved from my home in Australia to the other side of the planet to Dallas Texas. When I heard that I was moving, I felt a wave of despair wipe over me. As Taylor says “I have never in my own memory been outside of Kentucky” (Kingsolver 12). This was the same for me since I had never been …show more content…
I connected with Taylor as she moved out into the unknown and filled the void left in her with he people she met along the way and also with Estevan’s levels of home. However, through reading this book, I arrived to a conclusion. At the end of the book, Taylor, who still shows connection to Kentucky, says that she is headed home, but she means Tucson. Before this point in the book, she never refers to Tucson being home in a sense outside of a house. This combined with how Estevan’s descriptions of levels of home allowed me see into myself and further understand who I am. Just like Taylor, I may be away from where I am from, but I am able to change home. I was able to expand my definition of home; it doesn’t mean that I have to given up Australia because of where I live now and just because I don’t sound the same doesn’t mean I have lost anything. Just like Taylor, Esperanza, and Estevan change their names when they left their homes, I changed on the outside. But Kingsolver’s Bean Trees has allowed me to understand what I have on the inside and how do I create my identity as a human being. I have always identified and known that I am half French and half Singaporean, but through the book I have realized that the levels of Home in me can never be erased but only added to therefore, Australian is part of me
Catalase is a common enzyme that is produced in all living organisms. All living organisms are made up of cells and within the cells, enzymes function to increase the rate of chemical reactions. Enzymes function to create the same reactions using a lower amount of energy. The reactions of catalase play an important role to life, for example, it breaks down hydrogen peroxide into oxygen and water. Our group developed an experiment to test the rate of reaction of catalase in whole carrots and pinto beans with various concentrations of hydrogen peroxide. Almost all enzymes are proteins and proteins are made up of amino acids. The areas within an enzyme speed up the chemical reactions which are known as the active sites, and are also where the
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.
Many aspects of life are explored in Barbara Kingsolver's novel, The Bean Trees. A young woman named Marietta Greer from Kentucky wanted to strike out on her own, leaving behind everything she ever knew, just to start a new life. Many children want to do this at an early age so they can experience life on their own yet they don't realize the dangers involved.. Everyone that leaves the solace of their own home needs loving support to keep them going through life.
From close-mouthed to communicative, oblivious to obsessed, indifferent to independent, The Bean Trees shows all sorts of changes that can occur in unimaginable situations. Making these transformations seem so real, Barbara Kingsolver effectively brings the book to life by allowing the characters to uniquely grow and thrive in all sorts of circumstances just like we do in the real world. Lessons could even be taken from what these people learned through their journeys in life and applied to how we carry ourselves in our daily lives. Independence, self confidence, persistence, and perseverance all prove to be integral qualities in succeeding in life no matter what it throws at us.
They say that growing up is hard to do, and it certainly was for Taylor Greer, which is why she couldn't wait to leave her home in Pittman County, Kentucky. The novel, The Bean Trees, written by Barbara Kingsolver, follows Taylor's story of growing up, leaving home, and accepting responsibility. Along the way Taylor is given a child, Turtle, and she struggles with accepting the responsibility of raising a child. Kingsolver's choices for point of view, setting, conflict, theme, characterization, and style throughout the plot help create an uplifting story about love and what it means to be a family.
In consideration, many unexpected events can occur to us, which helps to shape one’s belief in something that they should avoid having. The novel, The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver portrays the life of Taylor Greer, a young and spirited woman who is brave enough to move out of a rural home in Kentucky with the goal of avoiding pregnancy. Little did Taylor know, she faces a human condition of accepting a three-year-old American Indian girl named Turtle. Throughout her journey, she creates many friendships with other people and love toward Turtle so there are many things that
Abandonment plays a major role in Barbara Kingsolver's novel. It links all the characters together. Once one abandons, or is abandoned, they find someone else. They all help each other grow and become stronger. Even with something as horrible and hurtful as abandonment, hope can be found. Taylor explains it perfectly to Turtle when she talks about bean trees, "'There's a whole invisible system for helping out the plant that you'd never guess was there.' I loved this idea. 'It's just the same as with people. The way Edna has Virgie, and Virgie has Edna, and Sandi has Kid Central Station, and everyone has Mattie" (227-228). Everyone is linked together and each person has someone to help. This whole cycle is caused by abandonment. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver shows that can be hope and love found in any situation, even in abandonment.
Sister Kay Haver explains, "the Refugees realize that the suffering is not over when they arrive in the US” (Mehri). As a member of the Sanctuary's Educational Committee, which helped to create a safe haven for immigrants, Haver describes the obstacles Guatemalan immigrants faced once they escaped to the United States. The Guatemalan Civil War involved extreme violence and pressure from the government, which fought mostly against leftist rebels. The Guatemalan Government has been proven guilty for the genocide of these people. The government targeted mainly poor, indigenous Mayans, similar to Estevan and Esperanza in The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. Kingsolver grew up in rural Kentucky and briefly lived in the Congo during her childhood. The novel tells the story of a young woman who leaves Kentucky for Arizona and picks up a deserted young child along the way. The book relates to her experiences throughout her life as she wrote it at night while she struggled with insomnia during the pregnancy of her first child. The story features two refugees from Guatemala, Estevan and Esperanza, whom Taylor helps out during their struggles in the United States. These immigrants often find themselves in danger of being abducted, which creates tremendous instability in their lives. Esperanza and Estevan also cannot return to Guatemala or out of fear that their old government will kill them. Taylor is invaluable to the couple, and because most immigrants did not have this advantage when coming to America. Despite this assistance, their lives are still stressful just like the lives of many immigrants that came to the United States from Guatemala at this time. While America may be a safe haven for certain immigrants, Mayan refugees from Gua...
There were many sacrificial elements that existed in The Bean Trees. Sacrifices that the characters in the novel made for the benefit of others or themselves. These sacrifices played a role almost as significant as some of the characters in the book. Some prime examples of these sacrifices are Mattie’s will to offer sanction to illegal immigrants, the fact that Taylor sacrificed the whole success of her excursion by taking along an unwanted, abused Native-American infant, and Estevan and Esperanza’s decision to leave behind their daughter for the lives of seventeen other teacher union members.
Many folks go their whole lives without having to move. For them it is easy; they know the same people, have loads of friends, and never have to move away from their families. As with me, I was in a different situation. I grew up my entire life, all eighteen years of it, in a small town called Yorktown, Virginia. In my attempt to reach out for a better life style, my girlfriend and I decided we were going to move to Shreveport, Louisiana. Through this course of action, I realized that not two places in this country are exactly alike. I struggled with things at first, but I found some comforts of home here as well.
Diane von Furstenberg once stated “I wanted to be an independent woman, a woman who could pay for her bills, a woman who could run her own life.” Independence plays a big role in being able to be successful in life. Taylor, a girl that can be described as “different ,” is a person who is a strong believer in doing things by herself. She moved out when she learned how to drive and never went back. She gains a child and soon settles down in Tucson Arizona, where she starts her own life. In the novel The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, there are many obstacles Taylor goes through to set the theme of independence.
Kingsolver develops the story of a strong young woman, named Taylor Greer, who is determined to establish her own individuality. The character learns that she must balance this individualism with a commitment to her community of friends, and in doing this, her life is immeasurably enriched. Many books speak of family, community, and individuality. I believe, however, that the idea that Barbara Kingsolver establishes in her book, The Bean Trees, of a strong sense of individualism, consciously balanced with a keen understanding of community as extended family, is a relatively new idea to the genre of the American novel.
The Bean Trees is a novel which shows Taylor’s maturation; it is a bildungsroman story. Taylor is a developing or dynamic character. Her moral qualities and outlook undergo a permanent change. When the novel begins, Taylor is an independent-minded young woman embarking on an adventure to a new world. She has no cares or worries. She is confident in her abilities, and is determined to make it through life on her own. As she discovers new things and meets new people, Taylor is exposed to the realities of the world. She learns about the plight of abandoned children and of illegal immigrants. She learns how to give help and how to depend upon the help of others. As she interacts with others, those people are likewise affected by Taylor. The other developing characters are Lou Ann Ruiz, Turtle, and Esperanza. Together they learn the importance of interdependence and find their confidence.
Moving far away from family and friends can be tough on a child at a young age. It has its pros and cons. One learns how to deal with moving away from the people they love and also learn how to deal with adjusting to new ways of life. Everything seems so different and at a young age one feels like they have just left the whole world behind them. That was an experience that changed my life as a person. It taught me how to deal with change and how to adjust. It developed me from a young boy into a mature young man.
It was a beautiful, sunny day in South Florida. I was six years old, playing by the pool with my new puppy. I loved swimming in the pool almost every day after school. I also enjoyed going out on our boat after school or crossing the street and going to the beach. My father came home one evening with some interesting news. Now, I do not remember exactly how I felt about the news at that time, but it seemed like I did not mind that much. He had announced that we were going to move back to my birth country, Belgium. I had been living in Florida for five years and it was basically all I had known so I did not know what to expect. I had to live with my mom at first, and then my sister would join us after she graduated high school and my father finished settling things. I remember most of my earlier childhood by watching some old videos of me playing by the pool and dancing in the living room. It seemed like life could not get any better. However, I was excited and impatient to experience a new lifestyle. I realized that I could start a whole new life, make new friends and learn a new language. Belgium was not as sunny as South Florida but it has much better food and family oriented activities. Geographic mobility can have many positive effects on younger children, such as learning new languages, being more outgoing, and more family oriented; therefore, parents should not be afraid to move around and experience new cultures.