Analysis Of The Bean Trees By Barbara Kingsolver

418 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: The bean trees essay

The phrase, “But we were cut out of the same mud, I suppose, just two more dirty-kneed kids scrapping to beat hell and trying to land in our feet” (The Bean Trees, 2), tells me that the main character, being, Marietta Greer (also referred to as, Taylor Greer or Missy) believes she and Newt Hardbine, an acquaintance, face parallel circumstances. Referring to the type of lifestyle they were surrounded by and must cope with; which was one where her community, is constantly struggling and where its residents don’t have much of a future. The Novel describes it as a poor rural area in Pittman County, Kentucky, where the chances of prospering were dim. As a matter of fact, the setting relates to the real life of Barbara Kingsolver, the author of The Bean Trees, seeing that it is where she grew up. …show more content…

The Pittman County lifestyle was not one that Greer wanted. She wanted for herself a better life; and for that to happen, she had to follow her own footsteps; which meant doing things differently than those from her hometown. Greer comments, “I stayed in school. I was not the smartest or even particularly outstanding but I was there and staying out of trouble and I intended to finish” (The Bean Trees, 3). The vast majority of women in the county became pregnant at a young age, and, or lived their entire lives as housewives, but Greer opposed to this and prevented such occurrences from becoming her reality. “Mama always said barefoot and pregnant was not my style. She knew” (The Bean Trees, 3). The tactics that would lead her into a new life elsewhere, filled with opportunity, was no other than her education; along with the support her mother gave her through love and guidance, which eventually constructed her aspirations for a better lifestyle. “There were two things about Mama. One is she always expected the best out of

Show More
Related

  • The Changeable Nature of Life in The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

    515 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping

    673 Words  | 2 Pages

    The word ‘houseskeeping’ refers to both the lack of domestic feminine roles in the book, but also to what the girls’ grandmother, Sylvia Foster, stated about keeping her home within the family, both in a physical sense and, as Sylvie and Ruth depart from it, a spiritual one. Ruth’s grandmother is using the maintenance of the family home as a metaphor for the women of the Foster house to maintain the very essence of their family itself, “Sell the orchards, but keep the house. So long as you look after your health, and own the roof over your head, you’re as safe as anyone can be,” (Robinson 27). In saying that the orchards should be sold, but not the house, Sylvia is telling her granddaughters that everything outside of the family can be lost and replaced, but so long as they contain the family unit, they will remain safe. While this story does deconstruct the idea of an “all-American”, aesthetically pleasing family, it doesn’t shed the values that one would consider typical for American Literature, such as a heavy emphasis on religion and family. Instead, it allows a unique viewpoint of the different structures of an American family, and demonstrates how, while the structures may change, the overall goals of staying rooted in one’s beliefs and in one’s familial comfort zone often are the same no matter how the roles within a household are established and

    Read More

  • Theme Of Morality In The Bean Trees

    1216 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is a large topic of discussion whether legality or morality is more important. Barbara Kingsolver poses this debate in her book The Bean Trees. This book takes place in the 1980s in Putnam County, Kentucky, and begins with Taylor, the main character, leaving her old house behind to start fresh. Taylor does not get the fresh start she is looking for and instead is given an unwanted responsibility of raising a child. Along her journey to find home, Taylor meets many new friends who help her. Through the illegal ways that Turtle Esperanza and Estevan are taken in by Taylor and Mattie, Kingsolver proves that with regard to family, morality is more important than legality.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Good Country People And Everyday Use

    1390 Words  | 3 Pages

    The statement, “She had telephoned the man whose name they had given as a reference and he had told her that Mr. Freeman was a good farmer but that his wife was the noisiest woman ever to walk the earth” suggests, when the term farmer is used, that this story takes place in a farm town. Also the way Mom describes herself can lead the reader to think that she works on a farm herself. She says, “I wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day. I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man” (744). From the way she describes her working hands to explaining how she slaughtered a cow, the reader understands that she has a farm that they live on and is an extremely hard worker. The setting in these stories are used in a way that impact the theme tremendously because the individuals who go to college are both from small rural communities where opportunities like this do not happen very often especially during this time, which is probably around the mid to late 1950s and 1960s. While, in the story “Good Country People”, a comment is made about the make of a car when the author notes that, “She said he owned a ’55 Mercury but that Glynese said she would rather marry a man with only a ’36 Plymouth who would be married by a preacher” (195). This statement can indicate that the time frame that ”Good Country People” happens in is around 1955 because the way it is talked about the older

    Read More

  • Gender Role Limitations in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

    957 Words  | 2 Pages

    To get ahead as a woman in Jane's era, one had to have wealth, position, family or friends.  Jane, an orphan, has none of these.  Her family and friends only serve as reminders of what she does not have.  They view her o...

    Read More

  • Survival in The Bean Trees

    3064 Words  | 7 Pages

    In 1859, Charles Darwin published his most famous work, On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection (Encarta 96). This book explained Darwin's theory of natural selection, a process not unlike separating the wheat from the chaff, where the least fit are eliminated, and only the fittest survive. An extension of this theory known as Social Darwinism emerged in the late 19th century. "Social Darwinists believed that people, like animals and plants, compete for survival and, by extension, success in life" (Encarta 96). Under this theory, the individuals who acquire the power and wealth are deemed the fittest, while those of lower economic and social levels are considered the least fit (Griffin Lecture). This appears to be a theory that Barbara Kingsolver sets out to disprove in her novel The Bean Trees. In a review in The Women's Review of Books, Margaret Randall observes that this is a novel not about "middle-class America, but real middle America, the unemployed and underemployed, the people working fast-food joints or patching tires, Oklahoma Indians, young mothers left by wandering husbands or mothers who never had husbands" (Randall 1). Ultimately, it is about survivors -- women such as Taylor Greer who sets out from Kentucky to find a better life and finds responsibility for another life; Mattie whose survival is wrapped up in her role as savior to all in need who enter Jesus Is Lord Used Tires; Lou Ann Ruiz who is afraid of life and in need of finding her strength; and Esperanza whose child was taken from her in a political struggle and who needs to find the will to live -- who pool their resources, both financial and emotional. These women have courage, humor and each other, resou...

    Read More

  • The Bean Trees

    706 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Flannery O Connor Good Country People Summary

    1601 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hopewell’s description of Mrs. Freeman in the story as “good country people” upholds the stereotypical attributes of what a woman. I interpreted this as a support for stereotypical actions for women. For example, Mrs. Freeman is an example of a long philosophy that women should work in the kitchen. It is ironic that Hopewell sees Mrs. Freeman as “good country people” because of her participation in gossip which is not seen as acceptable. By having Hopewell’s endorsement of nosey behavior and other stereotypical roles of women within the story, the story's portrayal of “good country people” is just O’Connor’s continuation of standards that negatively view women. If Mrs. Freeman was an innocent and selfless individual, then my assessment of Mrs. Hopewell’s use of “good country people” to describe her would not argue that the story is just endorsing stereotypical conduct. However, that is not the case and casting Mrs. Freeman’s conduct as good damages the arguments that the story has premises of

    Read More

  • Symbiotic Relationships In Kingsolver's The Bean Trees

    997 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Taylor's Quest In The Bean Trees

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    Taylor had a goal, a reason to achieve it, had many challenges along the way and in the end found her reason to thrive. Had Taylor stayed in town, there is a good chance she would have followed the rest of her peers, getting pregnant ad married without any thought to the world outside. Taylor Greer learned that she could rise above small town culture, be herself and thrive. This can be a lesson to readers and critics that life is a quest, and the most important part of it is our development and to find our place in the

    Read More

  • Bessie Coleman

    1361 Words  | 3 Pages

    While Bessie was young, and her older brothers and sisters started to work in the fields, Bessie took on some new responsibilities. She would now look after her sisters, and sometimes even help her mother in the garden. Bessie started school when she was six years old and walked four miles to school everyday. In school, she was very intelligent and excelled at math. Then, in 1901, when Bessie was nine, her life changed dramatically, her father George Coleman left his family. It was said that he was tired of the racial barriers that existed, and so he returned to Oklahoma (Indian Territory as it was called then) to search for better opportunities. When he was unable to convince his family to come with him, he left Susan and his family. Shortly thereafter, her older brothers also moved out, leaving Susan with four girls under the age of nine. This caused Susan to have to get a job, which she found very soon. She became a housekeeper for Mr. and Mrs. Jones, who allowed Susan to still live at home, and they would also give her food and other handed-down clothing. Since her mother was now at work, Bessie took on the responsibility of acting as a mother and a housekeeper. Every year at the cotton harvest, Bessie’s routine was changed because she now had to go out into the field and pick cotton for her family to be able to survive. This continued on until Bessie was twelve, and this was when she was accepted into the Missionary Baptist Church, where she completed all of her eight grades.

    Read More

  • The Bean Trees

    2754 Words  | 6 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Motherhood in Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees

    757 Words  | 2 Pages

    Motherhood in The Bean Trees & nbsp; In the novel, The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, we watch Taylor grow a great deal. This young woman takes on a huge commitment to caring for a child that doesn't even belong to her. The friends that she acquired along the way help teach her about love and responsibility, and those friends become family to her and Turtle. Having no experience in motherhood, she muddles through the best she can, as all mothers do. & nbsp; Marietta was raised in a small town in Kentucky. When she became an adult, she decided she needed a change.

    Read More

  • Racism and Sexism in Toni Morrison's Sula

    1607 Words  | 4 Pages

    The social conventions that are set up in this book play out in a small black community in Ohio called "the Bottom." The community itself formed when a white slave owner tricked his naïve black slave into accepting hilly mountainous land that would be hard to farm and very troublesome instead of the actual bottom (fertile valley) land that he was promised. The slave was told "when God looks down, it's the bottom. That's why we call it so. It's the bottom of heaven-best land there is" (4), and on the basis of this lie a community was formed. Its almost as if the towns misfortune is passed down ...

    Read More

  • Jane Eyre

    780 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jane’s struggle with social status is directly related to the injustice pushed on her from the Reed family. After Jane was knocked down and injured by Mrs. Reed’s son, Mrs. Reed punished Jane by locking her in a room. Mrs. Reed came back after Jane had screamed, when she thought she saw a ghost, to see what the matter was after thinking it was nothing she kept the punishment going:“...Mrs. Reed, impatient of my now frantic anguish and wild sobs, abruptly thrust me back and locked me away, without further parley”(16). Mr. Reed thinks of Jane as an orphan and less of a person than her own children. Mrs. Reed provokes the idea of injustice by throwing Ja...

    Read More

More about Analysis Of The Bean Trees By Barbara Kingsolver

Open Document