Stylistic choices made by people when writing all differ from each other. Everyone has their own perspective on any topic given and sometimes they may be the same as others, but when written these ideas of theirs can be completely different with how that writer chooses to express the idea. For Barbara Kingsolver in her novel The Bean Trees she makes an effective display of her personality and thoughts through her writing helping the audience understand more thoroughly who she is and why the writing is hers. Themes and motifs are utilized in her writing with a repetitive overarching concept relating to women. Kingsolver makes this her own by inserting themes in her publication that indirectly address the process of womanhood for her characters …show more content…
Taylor is young girl who leaves her home state Kentucky and ends up living in Arizona with a woman Lou Ann, but alongside her travels, she was given an Indian child she named Turtle. Lou Ann has a child of her own and together the two women learn and adjust their way of living, excluding male figures. She makes the girls fend for themselves and build strength confidence within them throughout the proceedings of the book. For instance, when Taylor first arrives in Tucson with Turtle she is clueless and helpless because she knows no one. However, during her journey she formed a family including various women: Lou Ann, Mattie, Esperanza, Edna, and Virgie. They all aid or support each other with whatever they do. Virgie and Edna take care of the children for Lou Ann and Taylor when they go to work and Mattie gave Taylor a job when she was in dire need. Even though Kingsolver is trying to show how the women are independently strong, she still demonstrates how defenseless they can be and how the women have no control over it. This feeling is shown in this excerpt when Taylor says, “How can I just be upset about Turtle, about a grown man hurting a baby, when the whole way of the world is to pick on people that can’t fight back?” (Kingsolver 229) Through this Kingsolver is trying to convey that women in the world can be helpless when compared to male figures because some men wrongfully hurt women. She goes on to explain how they are not taught how to respectfully treat a woman. The 21st century world has a peculiar way of enforcing standards on the genders, and in today’s society those standards are definitely not the same for each other and Kingsolver shows this through her
Celie is a victim of mistreatment and isolation in a world that considers women inferior to men. To instill fear and obedience in women, men conduct themselves in a hostile manner towards women. They manage women similar to slaves and sexually dominate them. When Celie is barely fourteen her stepfather, causing her to become pregnant twice, violates her multiple times. In a letter to God, Celie writes “I cry. He start to choke me, saying You better shut up and git used to it” (Walker 11). Intended merely to satisfy Pa, Celie...
Life is constantly changing, like clouds in the sky; always shifting and turning. People never really know which way life will turn next, bringing them fortune or failure. When you look at how things change it is best to compare it to something that you can relate it to. The changeable nature of life can be related to the novel 'The Bean Trees.' This is a book written almost entirely on dealing with changes in the characters lives.
The author is pointing out that women will not be quiet about the struggles of native women. She states, "It's a disease to me, to be quiet, You see it in the communities, on the reserves, in families and stuff, where if somebody's abused, people
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.
The story also focuses in on Ruth Younger the wife of Walter Lee, it shows the place she holds in the house and the position she holds to her husband. Walter looks at Ruth as though he is her superior; he only goes to her for help when he wants to sweet talk his mama into giving him the money. Mama on the other hand holds power over her son and doesn’t allow him to treat her or any women like the way he tries to with Ruth. Women in this story show progress in women equality, but when reading you can tell there isn’t much hope and support in their fight. For example Beneatha is going to college to become a doctor and she is often doubted in succeeding all due to the fact that she is black African American woman, her going to college in general was odd in most people’s eyes at the time “a waste of money” they would say, at least that’s what her brother would say. Another example where Beneatha is degraded is when she’s with her boyfriend George Murchison whom merely just looks at her as arm
She establishes "the 'do' and the 'don't' of behavior" (Smith 132) in her children and believes, "If you could just keep from them all the things that must never be mentioned, all would be well!" (Smith 142). At the same time, the southern white woman sits atop the pedestal of Sacred Womanhood that her husband and his ancestors built for her (Smith 141). She meekly sits there, a symbol of southern society used to benefit men's ideals, feeling empty and powerless against everything going on around her (Smith 141-2). The whispers in her children's ears and her presence on that pedestal fulfill the white woman's role as protectress of Southern Tradition, but does not fulfill the southern white woman. In fact, the roles of the southern black woman and the southern white woman are equally important and equally oppressive: "In a culture where marriage and motherhood were women's primary roles, neither black nor white women were free to be fully wives or mothers, and neither were able to shield their children from the physical and psychic destruction of the racist society in which they lived" (Gladney 6).
Throughout literature and truth there is always a steady progression of sexism and gender roles. A tradition of fathers passing it down to sons and them passing down to their sons and so on and so forth, however, the trend does not stop there, with women being taught to be docile and meek, while men provide, there is a mentality that is taught along with it. In The Color of Water, McBride's mother describes being raped by her father, the provider and protector of the household. She recalled, “Anytime he had a chance he’s try to get close to me or crawl into my bed with me and molest me… But it affected me in a lot of ways, what he did to me. I had very low self-esteem as a child, which i kept with me for many, many, years.” (McBride 43). Because
Although none of the novels were wrote in conjunction, each has a link towards the other regarding abuse, both sexual and spousal, as well as class oppression and the manual labor that was a necessity for survival among black women. By examining present society, one can observe the systems of oppressions that have changed for the better as well as those that continue to devastate the lives of many women today.
...brought with it discrimination of African American women, “They were targets of brutality, the butt of jokes and ridicule, and their womanhood was denied over and over. It was a struggle just to stay free, and an even greater struggle to define womanhood” (162). As the men fought the war the women who were now dependent upon themselves more than ever had to take on the role of the father. The Mammy figure now stood up for herself and would often times leave the white family, the family they left would often have feelings of remorse for their tremendous loss. Women were standing up for themselves and where now the maker of their own destiny, but with that still came the harsh reality that they would be still the most vulnerable group in antebellum America. Many single African American women were faced with poverty and had a really hard time dealing with the war and depending on themselves. Deborah Gray White’s view of slave women shows us that their role was truly unique, they faced the harsh reality that they were not only women or African American, they were both, so therefore their experience was one of a kind and they lived through it, triumphed, and finally won their freedom.
The novel challenges the contradicting sides of the expectation and reality of family and how each one contains a symbiotic relationship. The ideal relationship within families differ throughout The Bean Trees. Kingsolver focuses on the relationship between different characters and how they rely on each other to fill the missing gaps in their lives.
The novel begins with the intense and graphic description of Celie being raped by her father. During this violation Celie states that, “When that hurt, I cry. He start to choke me, saying You better shut up and git used to it. But I don’t ever get used to it” (Walker 1). The very specific dialect that Walker uses in these three short sentences creates a very grim and severe tone that helps deepen the understanding and severity of Celie’s situation. A sense of inferiority is established through Celie’s father’s demand that she must “get used to it” because he is the superior male and she must listen to him. Walker uses this tone to immediately establish the traditional gender roles that are woven throughout the novel. In addition to the male’s
...autiful creatures and deserve everything life has to offer. When gathered together, nothing can destroy the strength of a woman. Guidance from parents, at a very young age, can help mold the minds of the young children in today’s society. This world has become overpopulated with greed and hate. The only way to get past the hatred and violence is to love thy neighbor, and protect our young from the unnecessary violence that can be eliminated with love for one another.
This short story makes the gender roles in the Southern culture very clear. Even though the grandmother is very talkative it is her mouth that put them all in danger. If she had not claimed to recognize the Misfit he probably would have let them go, but the grandmother also foreshadowed the dangerous situation happening before it happened. This irony is what I believe the author uses to draw attention to the gender roles within Southern culture. I believe the author allows the grandmother to have insight of how this misfit she saw the newspaper would be ultimately the end of their lives. If her son would have considered what she said about encountering the Misfit, he could have prevented their death. When her son chose to ignore her, it was a representation of how women’s opinion was ignored in society. The short story didn't seem to have much tension or mention about race other than the display of how the family interacted with themselves and with other African Americans. Finally, this story raises questions about class because it shows how the children treated people with a lower economic status. This family is portrayed as a working or middle-class family because the daughter knows how to tap dance, and their family is going on a vacation. The children treat people with a lower economic status poorly with a lot of disrespect. On page 4 the daughter speaks disrespectfully
The novel explores the idea that domestic violence is a trait that is passed on from generation to generation but can be unlearned. Domestic Violence was one of the most important and most critical topics that were explained in The Color Purple. The book begins as Celie describes her initial family. Her father beats her mother and proceeds to rape Celie after her mother becomes too ill to satisfy her father’s sexual needs. She lives in constant fear of “him” and makes it her underlining goal to protect her sister Nettie from him at all costs. In the story her father states to Celie “You better never tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy” (Walker 1) making it clear that she is forced to comply with all his needs. Celie’s father impregnates her and when she is to give birth her father takes the infant away from her, and makes it seem like he has killed the baby in t...
In this Alice Walker story, the reader meets a girl named Celie. In this novel, Walker takes the reader on a journey through much of Celie’s life. While taking the reader through this tale, Walker draws attention to a number of social aspects during this time period. Through Cilie’s life, Walker brings to light the abuse and mistreatment of African American women from 1910 through the 1940’s. “Women were also regarded as less important than men – both Black and white Black women double disadvantage.