Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees

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When baby birds hatch into the world they are full of hope and ambition to be able to fly. In the book, The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, Taylor Greer is given a toddler outside a bar she stopped at on her journey to a new place that she names Turtle that needs all the hope she can get. Taylor and Turtle travel through the book together and keep each other going. Birds represent Turtle because they relate to hope and Turtle needs hope the most. Birds are shown when Mattie brings up her sanctuary, when Taylor sees the bird in the cactus, and when the bird is in Ms. Parson’s house. In the first few chapters, Taylor learns that her friend Mattie owns a tire shop and helps refugees in her spare time. Mattie calls it a sanctuary, but Taylor has only ever heard of a bird sanctuary. Mattie tries to explain this and Taylor says, “It’s a place set aside for birds, where nobody’s allowed to shoot them” (105). This is compared to Turtle because Taylor is Turtle’s sanctuary. Without Taylor, Turtle could’ve been dead on the streets right now. That is the same thing Mattie is doing. If Mattie didn’t help the Spanish refugees then they would be dead on the street as well. The sanctuary gives Turtle hope. …show more content…
When Taylor takes Turtle to the doctor, she sees a bird in a cactus and says, "There was a cactus with bushy arms and a coat of yellow spines as thick as fur. A bird had built her nest in it. In and out she flew among the horrible spiny branches, never once hesitating. You just couldn't imagine how she'd made a home in there" (130). Taylor compares Turtle to the bird in the cactus because Turtle has made a home in the harsh environment she used to live in. Even though her life wasn’t the greatest, she has the hope to make what she had the

Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees

Prompt 1: Analysis on how Motherhood contributes to the theme of “The Bean Trees” Throughout Barbara Kingsolver's famous novel, “The Bean Trees,” the major theme of community and family love has been circling around, but the recurring motif of motherhood stands out. Kingsolver portrays many types of mothers, birth, adoptive and surrogate: Taylor and her mother, Taylor and Turtle, Lou Ann and Dwayne, Esperanza and Ismene, and Mattie and her house full of refugees. While the theme of community and…

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Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees

Barbara Kingsolver’s book, The Bean Trees sounds almost like a gender activist exposé of some sort. Unlike other books that have been read in this class, this book overtly and covertly puts into mainstream social, and gender issue through the likable flawed and imperfect characters used in the novel. She pushes to the society social problems that women face, which the society has refused to acknowledge existed or simply ignored. The novel encapsulates societal burden – single motherhood, molestation…

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Salvation In Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees

Through empathy and generosity, humanity flourishes. The willingness to give and feel what another feels is a quality which creates salvation. This proves especially true for Taylor, in Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Bean Trees. Taylor’s salvation depends on the emotional support of those around her and the crucial experiences she faces that are imperative to adapting to the challenges adulthood brings. Arriving in Tucson Arizona, Taylor views her situation as unideal. It has always been her dream…

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Theme Of Motherhood In Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees

In Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees, motherhood is a theme that is constant in the book. All of the situations are different and similar. The main character Taylor daughter of a single mother becomes an unlikely mother to turtle a child whose mom died. Lou Ann comes from a traditional family in Kentucky. She becomes a single mother to Dewayne Ray after her husband Angel leaves her. Esperanza is an illegal immigrant from Guatemala. She had a child she had to leave behind in Guatemala to save…

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Motherhood In Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees

Barbara Kingsolver, author of The Bean Trees, states that “being a mother has enriched [her] understanding of the world, of character, [her] sense of the future and [her] attachment to it. Instead of staying in her hometown like most girls do, Taylor leaves Pittman County to avoid becoming a mother, however; ironically, the fate of motherhood appears once again in Taylor’s life when a little girl named Turtle enters her life. Taylor must navigate her newfound life of motherhood with the assistance…

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The Loving Support In Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees

The Loving Support in The Bean Trees Vivian Greene once said that, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning how to dance in the rain” (“Goodreads.com”). In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, The Bean Trees, she brings together a group of dysfunctional people at their most desperate times. She emphasizes the importance of a community and loyalty. Every character has strengths however, they still need someone by their side that they can count on. Kingsolver reveals how someone…

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Humor In Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees

From all of Kingsolver’s works many people say that she has the tendency as an author to write about the situations and issues that she feels are important to herself and to the readers. Unlike most authors, Kingsolver’s style in her works are more poetic than most. She tends to use more analogies, but she also uses humor. Some critics say she uses humor to create a “Southern novel taken west.” Two of her works where she uses these writing styles are “The Bean Trees” and “Animal Dreams” In the book…

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The Importance Of Family In The Bean Trees By Barbara Kingsolver

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver writes about the importance of family and finding your true self. Most of Kingsolver's characters are refugees trying to find the better life. Some, like Taylor, don't find exactly what they were looking for, but it ended up being okay. Mattie is trying to help people. Lou Ann is trying to find herself after Angel Left her, Turtle is trying to get past what happened to her and get over her internal scars, Estevan and Esperanza are seeking safety and closure, and…

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Feminism: Want and Lou Ann Essays

access jobs in the public arena” (Arciniega par. 1). Many women today do not want to simply be a housewife; they want to be able to have a job to be independent and self sufficient and not have to have somebody else support them. In both Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees and Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, a female character finds the strength within herself to rebel against her situation to become less dependent on male characters and become a self reliant, independent woman. The women in both novels progress…

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