Barbara Kingsolver once said, I wrote The Bean Trees because Steinbeck wrote Cannery Row.” The novel, Cannery Row, crowded with various anecdotes, chases the ambitions of Mack and his group of eccentric men. However, the story incorporates little plot, instead, John Steinbeck is more interested in the community as a group. The meager town of Monterey, California conserves its sentimental value of fellowship and team effort. Although, the Row is established as a sluggish town, in reality its commoners are a bunch of warm-hearted fools. Mack and the boys live rich, innovational lives, yet are a bunch of unemployed misfits, who aid one another in difficult situations. Similarly, in The Bean Trees, distant individuals with diverse experiences, despite their power in society, come together, creating a loving and supporting family. Barbara Kingsolver was inspired to write The Bean Trees, because of her admiration for Cannery Row’s fellowship and prospering community; throughout the two novels, community and the character’s support for one another during hardship, leads them to success.
Mack, the leader of a reckless and erratic gang, through collaboration, brings the boys together into a sense of friendship and community; in The Bean Trees, Kingsolver's strong willed, group of women, develop into a similar relationship. Throughout Cannery Row, the group’s individual responsibilities, for example, Eddie’s part-time job, Gay’s “magic” in mechanics, and Mack’s innovative personality, helps them survive by the help of one another, and adds success to their ambitions, like giving Doc a party. They independently work toward one goal, but in unison. The devotion, as well as teamwork to “give him (Doc) one hell of a party,” becomes the numbe...
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...in The Bean Trees, Taylor’s motherly love, Lou Ann’s sympathy, and Mattie’s generosity, all develop a community, a family, and a nostalgia of support. Mack and the boy’s innovative lives, similar to the women in The Bean Trees, both survive with the help of another. Dora’s and Taylor’s everlasting benevolence towards needy families, drives the community to prosperity. Furthermore, Cannery Row and the tide pool’s s reliance on each other, as well as the rhizobia are relevant, for the two depend on support, to survive. In conclusion, Cannery Row and The Bean Trees are sources of inspiration, Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, carries a lot of Cannery Row’s meaningful messages of the world. Simple fellowship from one person, in reality changes a community to be not just a location on a map, but a bond of unitedly support.
Works Cited
The Bean Trees and Cannery Row Novels
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.
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.
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.
...in the people there. Some were able to combat their loneliness they had things to fill their voids such as their friends, spouses and even the parties. While others never found true contentment. In Cannery Row John Steinbeck has clearly emphasized the importance of friendship and community. He illustrated working together. And even the importance of needs such as physiological, safety, love/belonging, and esteem. In essence the people of Cannery Row truly care for each other. And though they are sometimes lonesome when they come together their loneliness instantly diminishes.
Although the author, Betty Smith, denied ever writing a novel with socially political motives, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn abounds with references to class issues. Nearly every scene, every character illustrates or deals with the problem of poverty in early twentieth-century America. For the Nolan’s, being poor means they must always think about being poor – how they will buy the next load of coal, where their food will come from, their insurance, rent, medicine, all the necessities of raising a family. The novel also shows that poverty is not just the absence of food or comfort, it is the direct cause for Uncle Flittman to leave, Johnny’s utter nothingness and Francie’s inability to go to a high school. Every action in the novel is based around a limited amount of resources, as not only the Nolan’s but also the entire community suffers. Exploitation abounds, whether in the overpriced sale of candy, child labour in metal collection, dishonest grocers and butchers and employers with impunity to set their own rules. Katie does her best with the household money, and we find that for the poor sometimes a luxury isn’t in getting something, but in being able to waste it.
“I had come to Arizona expecting an endless sea of sand dunes . . . But this desert was nothing like that. There were bushes and trees and weeds here, exactly the same as anywhere else, except that the colors were different and everything alive had thorns” (Kingsolver 217). This quote, from Barbara Kingsolver's, The Bean Trees, describes the Arizona landscape that is abounding in life even in the absence of water. Central to the novel, the theme of surviving in a harsh environment is intrinsic to plants as well as the people. Throughout the story, the characters must push beyond their previous limitations in order to take on the injustices around them. To create such dynamic characters, Kingsolver looked upon the knowledge and experiences of her own life. Her memories of divisions as an adolescent, college degree in biology, and political ties as a human rights activist all provided the foundation for her novel, The Bean Trees.
To start, Kingsolver uses your sympathy to draw you into the books. In The Bean Tree, Kingsolver makes you feel sorry for American’s in poverty. Butler states, “The novel is about the struggles of American life for the vast number of people for whom the rags-to-riches dream is never realized. This is the real America, the America of unskilled labor, low levels of education, and limited access to the perks of American society (Butler 1927). This story makes you feel sympathy towards American life, however in Pigs in Heaven you feel more sympathetic towards Taylor and Turtle. “I understand attachments between mothers and their children. But if you are right, if I have no choice here but to be a
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. When Taylor and Lou Ann meet, they form a symbiotic relationship and fill the missing gaps in each others lives. Once the two women move in with each other, Lou Ann fills Taylor’s missing gap of motherly experience and opens her eyes to a life full of responsibilities.
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.
John Steinbeck’s use of figurative language and local color in Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday and Of Mice and Men show his growth as a writer and highlight the reoccurring theme of loneliness and ostracism. The time gap in between these books show that Steinbeck grows as he experiences more throughout his life. Steinbeck’s novels are always set in California due to his extensive knowledge of the area since he has lived in the area his entire life. In all of his works the characters use parts of speech and actions that are customary to that area.
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.
In the novel, The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, we watch as Taylor grows a great deal. This young woman takes on a huge commitment of 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.