Throughout life there will always be obstacles to overcome. Whether it be personal, work related, or just trying to figure life out. There is not one person who is immune to these things. Unfortunately, there is not one person who is immune to discrimination either, which is why we, as human beings, must make a greater attempt to recognize the differences every individual has to offer, and embrace whatever it is to it’s full potential. Many feel the pressures that womanhood presents, for instance. Not to say there isn’t burdens that are exhibited with manhood, but there still remains some hefty barriers on the road to 21st century equality. It is a fact that men are met with greater confidence in the workplace, while women remain severely underrepresented …show more content…
This includes the amount of wage earned for the same amount of work. Although these separations between the two genders continue to exist, women have come a long way over the years. Our feminist foremothers succeeded in getting some women out of the kitchen and into the workplace. This was huge. Revolutionary. It was only possible because women decided to unite and stand together. The novel, The Bean Trees, displays an excellent representation of how important a woman’s relationship is with another female. Every human being needs to have some kind of relationship in order to maintain a healthy well-being. Someone who is there to give support and guidance is an important ingredient to one’s life recipe. The women in The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, show very generous support towards one another. The best example of this is displayed in Lou Ann and Taylor’s relationship. When Taylor and Lou Ann are first introduced, Lou Ann doesn’t believe in herself. She constantly puts herself down and doesn’t see her full potential. Her negative relationship with Angel is …show more content…
Physical handicaps, for instance, does not lower the worth of that person compared to anyone else. For example, it is not fully revealed that Edna Poppy is blind until well into The Bean Trees. There are hints here and there presented throughout the novel, but Taylor Greer and Lou Ann Ruiz have no idea of her disability. Mind you, they weren’t assessing her to find out if there was anything wrong with her either. It isn’t exposed until Edna is alone at the grocery store without Virgie, who usually assists her around. Taylor notices Edna in the store and approaches her, only to learn that Edna had no idea if she had picked up limes, or lemons. It is then that Taylor notices her white cane, and realizes that her dreamy, glossy gaze that hovers above head makes sense now. In this moment she comes to understand why Virgie always announces everyone’s name that is in a room when they enter. After learning of Edna’s disability, Lou Ann and Taylor admit they are shocked. They had no idea. Edna just assumed they knew, and took it as a compliment when they confessed they did not. It is truly a breathtaking moment, symbolizing that not everyone in society is here to judge. There is still acceptance regardless of differences. It is important to focus on who a person is inside, rather than the outer shell, which is much too easy to judge. That is how an amateur seeks satisfaction; by amusing themselves through pointing out other’s
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.
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.
Socrates' idea of the collective family is evident in Barbara Kingsolver's work, as well. In The Bean Trees, Kingsolver illustrates the many different families that can be present in one's life, and the importance of that communal role. As Maureen Ryan points out, in the different world that [Kingsolver] envisions throughout her fiction, we'd all care for everyone's child (81). In Kingsolver vision, Taylor, Lou Ann, Turtle, and Dwayne Ray can live together as a family, supporting each other physically, spiritually, and mentally. Kingsolver also makes a point to include Taylor befriending Sandy, and how they help each other out by checking up on each other's kids at the mall day-care (67). Sandy is not the only on...
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.
Since the beginning of time, women have been treated as inferiors by men. Due the supposedly weak anatomy their body, they have always been seen as weak and fragile, a description that can’t be farther from the true. Women have been proven to withstand a large amount of pain and have a stronger emotional stability. Just like racism, gender deferment has been less with the progression of time but it’s still a factor that is present in the everyday life of modern society. We can see this in the fields of work like science where it is rare to find a women scientist and how the technological world is mostly ruled by powerful male figures. Women have been oppressed since the beginning of time and have fought for their rights bravely and consistently, women went from not even being able to speak their own thoughts unless their husbands said so and being an incubator for male heirs to being inspirations to many people and fighting for what it’s right. We, as a society, have progressed in that way through the ages, even though, some women are still being oppressed daily on various parts of the world, it is something that we must overcome and we will, because this world is a better place with more smart, educated and outgoing
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.
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
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.
Discrimination happens every day, whether inadvertently or not. This mindset has been practiced for thousands upon thousands of years. We live in a society that is quick to judge other individuals based on their cultural background, race, age, even their financial status. Discrimination has been an ongoing issue throughout the world since the beginning of time. Women, throughout history, have experienced discrimination first hand for a long time. The women’s cultural background, race, financial status mattered, but not as much as the fact that she was a woman first. For example, women were thought of as fragile individuals with bodies that were not built to a man’s standard. For thousands
For the past century, the United States of America has made countless advancements in technology, medicine, and many other fronts. As a society, it has advanced at an incredible rate, becoming a major world power in an incredibly short period of time. The biggest barriers that America is working on are currently taking place within its own borders; civil rights and the battle for equality have men and women of every race up and arms. Specifically, the fight against sexism is the most modern struggle in America. Discrimination against women is harmful to both men and women; it holds women back into a useless position and forces men to take the brunt of the work. Men are expected to work, but women are almost expected not to, and instead "be nothing more than dangling, decorative ornaments--non-thinking and virtually non-functional” (Chisholm 4). There is progress to be made in the American society in its attitude and treatment of women. Gender inequality continues to be a social problem in the business, family, and personal lives of women.
The role of women in society has always been an issue throughout the ages and throughout Western Europe, and more or less all over the world. Before the age of the Enlightenment, or the Dark Ages, women were always seen as secondary to men in all aspects. Most reasons were religious while others were just the way life was then. By the late 18th century, at the time of the French Revolution and the continuance of the Enlightenment era, the role of women in society began changing drastically as the lights of the world were now open with this brand new enlightened era. Women began holding jobs, yet still did not receive the same privileges as men. By the time the Industrial Revolution came along in the 19th century many more jobs were opened to a woman in the work force. Reforms began in all areas throughout the 19thand early 20th centuries as women were gaining more and more rights and acceptance into everyday life. By the time the 20th century rolled around and throughout, no longer was it thought that women belonged in the home (although few still feel that way), yet many women began serving professional jobs as doctors, lawyers, and politicians. Now today some of the most successful people in the business world are women, as women have even began there own companies.
The institutionalized discrimination of women in the work place is nothing new or unheard of. The brunt of it has happened fairly recently as women began to enter the labor market in force less than a century ago. The affect of this discrimination has had long lasting, generation spanning affects, but as time has passed and feminism spread, the gender-gap has slowly begun to shrink.
“For most of history, anonymous was a woman –Virginia Wolf.” For women, the path to equality in the home and workforce has been a long hard fought battle that is still taking place as we speak. With every victory that has taken place, there have also been road blocks at every turn, many shed tears, resistance, and an unwavering belief felt by men, that women truly will never amount to anything other than a housewife. If the women from the start of this battle were to see the great strides taken place over the years and the place women are at now, they would stand in utter disbelief. It is with great thanks that we as women are able to flourish as individuals; letting our goals, dreams, aspirations, and intelligence take the forefront of our duties to society.
Since the 19th century, the women's movement has made fantastic strides toward obtaining civil rights for women in America. Woman suffrage has been abolished, and they are no longer viewed as second-class citizens. Unfortunately, the issue of gender inequality still echoes in today's society. The fight to change a society shaped predominately by men continues, and will likely pursue for decades to come. Whether it be social, political, or economic rights, the main idea is equality for all genders, man or woman. In modern society, it seems that such a simple concept should be accepted globally by everyone – so why do women still face the daily toils of demanding the privileges that should available to all? No matter the class of woman, it is likely they will suffer from inequality and stereotypes at some point in their life. We see this in the workplace, where women have been shown to earn less then men. Some women also face the dangers of sexual violence, and are left victimized for such crimes.
...rom the confines of gender and social inequality, there must be an equal freeing of men. The limits that we place on the lives of both women and men must dissolve together in order to achieve equality. The social construct of 'woman' was built in the context of the construct of 'man'. To change one without the other would be impossible. The politics, laws, economics and sociocultural systems that prop up inequality must also be renovated and/or dissolved somehow in order for anyone, man or woman, to be free of deeply ingrained systems of inequality. There can be no shift toward equality without recognition and recalibration of the power structures that enable and perpetuate imbalance. If we can solve all that, then equality is feasible. If not, or if only in a far and distant future, it is absolutely necessary to believe that it will always be worth striving toward.