The Theme of Uncertain Journey in the Bean Trees
Uncertain journeys are numerous in Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees. Many characters in the novel put their current lives aside to go off in hopes of finding a better one.
By embarking on these journeys, the plot lines begin and end with risk taking. Taylor’s move away from Pittman and her taking Turtle, Louann not going after her husband, and the many risks of Estevan and Esperanza, create conflicts which drive the plot of The Bean Trees.
While growing up Taylor knows that she has no desire to live the life of the average young girl from Pittman. She says, “Mama always said barefoot and pregnant was not my style.”(3) Taylor finally decided to take a risk, she left her home and everything that she had known since growing up and started her old ‘55 Volkswagen out on the road for a new life. While in Oklahoma, Taylor recieved an Indian child from a woman claiming that the child's mom had died and that the baby girl had no one else. Taylor named the baby “Turtle” and headed out with her and risks that went with raising a baby. Finally settling in Arizona, Taylor had driven across the country with little money and taken a baby she knew nothing about. As if the risks weren’t enough already, the search for a job and a place to live were still ahead. Taylor finally found a room she loved, a room mate Louann, and, a job ironically in a local tire business.
Ever since she was a young girl Taylor had a fear of tires. She ...
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.
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.
Baby narrates her story through her naïve, innocent child voice. She serves as a filter for all the events happening in her life, what the narrator does not know or does not comprehend cannot be explained to the readers. However, readers have reason not to trust what she is telling them because of her unreliability. Throughout the beginning of the novel we see Baby’s harsh exposure to drugs and hurt. Jules raised her in an unstable environment because of his constant drug abuse. However, the narrator uses flowery language to downplay the cruel reality of her Montreal street life. “… for a kid, I knew a lot of things about what it felt like to use heroin” (10). We immediately see as we continue reading that Baby thinks the way she has been living her life is completely normal, however, we as readers understand that her life is in fact worse then she narrates. Baby knows about the impermanent nature of her domestic security, however, she repeatedly attempts to create a sense of home each time her and Jules move to another apartm...
...uliet because he was a coward, secretive, and had a lack of communication with the other characters. Friar Lawrence had the potential to prevent the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, and instead, because of his choices, he caused them. Yes, the other characters may have contributed to Romeo and Juliet’s death, but Friar Lawrence caused it. The blame rests solely on his soldiers.
Friar Lawrence should be blamed for the Tradegy of Romeo and Juliet because he acted to quickly. The Friar arranges for Romeo and Juliet to be married in secret, without thinking of the consequences of his actions. For instance, Friar hurriedly says ““…come, come with me, and we will make short work.””(2:4:101) Not only does Friar Lawrence marry Romeo and Juliet but he rushes their marriage. Although earlier he wisely states “wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast.” (2:3:101) Friar tells Romeo that slower is wiser, yet he rushes their wedding. Furthermore, the Friar is hiding Romeo after he has ki...
Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn presents the problems of a young girl coming of age, a time when she is faced with new challenges and must overcome obstacles. Throughout the book the protagonist, Francie Nolan discovers herself maturing as she struggles with loneliness, the loss of innocence and a life of poverty in a Brooklyn slum. This theme is evident in (1.) her love for books which she uses as companionship, (2.) her outlook on the world as she matures and finally, (3.) her realization that in order to succeed in life she must obtain an education and work hard to do it.
First, it was Friar Lawrence's fault Romeo and Juliet committed suicide. Friar Lawrence not only made one, but three mistakes that led to the death of Romeo and Juliet. He had gave a poison to Juliet, he trusted someone else with a letter of great importance to deliver to Romeo, and he fled to Juliet’s tomb, instead of trying to help her. Friar Lawrence was planning for Romeo and Juliet to be together but it did not end well. Friar Lawrence made the mistake of trusting a unstable fourteen year with a potion.
Her parents meet at a social gathering in town and where married shortly thereafter. Marie’s name was chosen by her grandmother and mother, “because they loved to read the list was quite long with much debate over each name.” If she was a boy her name would have been Francis, so she is very happy to have born a girl. Marie’s great uncle was a physician and delivered her in the local hospital. Her mother, was a housewife, as was the norm in those days and her father ran his own business. Her mother was very close with her parents, two brothers, and two sisters. When her grandmother was diagnosed with asthma the family had to move. In those days a warm and dry climate was recommended, Arizona was the chosen state. Because her grandma could never quite leave home, KY, the family made many trips between the states. These trips back and forth dominated Marie’s childhood with her uncles and aunts being her childhood playmates.
Taylor's fears In the story, The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingslover, we see a character named Taylor overcome several fears that she has. Taylor Greer, a woman who once saw a man being thrown several feet up into the air shortly after his tractor tire blew up, never really liked tires. She always seemed to think that the same thing might happen to her if she ever did something like, overfilling it too much with air. Her mom, who was fairly normal, decided to test Taylor's tire-changing skills shortly after she bought her ‘55 Volkswagen.
Marie, who is a product of an abusive family, is influenced by her past, as she perceives the relationship between Callie and her son, Bo. Saunders writes, describing Marie’s childhood experiences, “At least she’d [Marie] never locked on of them [her children] in a closet while entertaining a literal gravedigger in the parlor” (174). Marie’s mother did not embody the traditional traits of a maternal fig...
The Bean Trees has the structure of a quest. The protagonist or quester is Taylor Greer. Her place to go or destination of the quest is more of an idea rather than an actual place. It is the idea of a place free of oppression due to her gender and cultural background. She wants a place to start a new life. Taylor’s escape
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.
His dissections lead to one of the major discoveries of anatomy. Before Vesalius completed his book De Humani Corporis Fabrica, everyone in the medical community believed that Galen’s writings was complete truth. Even though we know now that Galen was wrong about a lot, everyone believed his writings without any evidence. That is what Vesalius brought to the medical and scientific community, evidence. Now, the scientific community is based on evidence and supporting that evidence. If Vesalius never dissected with his own hands, there is no telling where the knowledge of the human body would be right now. Vesalius achievements opened the path for knowledge and modern medical science, not only in anatomy but also in dissections and testing
Jeannette Walls was born into a poor family who often had to live homeless and without food. The environment in which she grew up in is what gave her the characteristics she possesses. One trait that describes Jeannette is that she is very adventurous. Since she was constantly exposed to new surroundings, she became curious of them. While she was homeless in the desert, she would play a game with her father called Monster Hunting. She grew to not be afraid of anything, since she could fight off these so called “monsters.” Also, Jeannette is very decisive. To get away from Welch, a poor town in West Virginia, she made sure that she would get enough money to move to New York. She did this by getting a job to save up money for a bus ticket and for college. Along with this, Jeannette is very ambitious. She worked very hard to get accepted into college by working for the school newspaper, since she wanted to become a journalist. On the other hand, Melba Patillo was born into a middle class family who lived in Lit...
As being noted, Friar Lawrence made an assortment of mishaps, which he could have made superior choices that lead to both Romeo and Juliet’s death. Point often overlooked, with his careless choices, he married Romeo and Juliet, he depended upon Friar John with a letter of essential information to be delivered to Romeo, and he took off when Juliet was in jeopardy at the tomb. Again and Again Friar Lawrence showed that his excessive mistakes and took Romeo and Juliet’s life. In the long run, Friar Lawrence is more to blame than anyone else for Romeo and Juliet’s death.