Analysis Of Snapping Beans By Lisa Parker

Light, Fragile, and Easily Influenced A young college student’s mind is easily influenced, partially due to a lack of resistance toward outside forces. In the poem “Snapping Beans” by Lisa Parker, the same can be said for the hickory leaf when influenced by the wind. The leaf is the most prevalent symbol in the story. It is an integral piece to the theme of change as one transitions from childhood to the responsibilities of being an adult. The hickory leaf is a representation of how change influences the mind of a young person. Just as the leaf blows away in the wind, the things that the speaker was familiar with at home, like the evening star, are drifting out of her mind and being replaced by the “revelations” being brought to her at college, such as the wonders of astronomy. When the grandmother says, “It’s funny how things blow loose like that”, she means that the speaker’s mind has already been heavily influenced by an uncharted atmosphere, as well as referencing the leaf itself. The poem says that the new, non-traditional things that she learns are as real as a shout of faith form her home church in

When it first arrives on the wood porch of the old home, it is summer green. It has not yet been influenced by the weather change of fall. This is a model of the speaker as she leaves the comfort and reliability of home for bigger, life-changing and perspective-changing experiences. A new home and new experiences might heavily shift the close relationships with family members. When the speaker’s grandmother asks the speaker how school is going, she answers, “School’s fine” without specifically describing the new friends or classes. Despite the guilt inside, the speaker chooses to let the feeling consume her rather than share it with her beloved grandmother. When the leaf changes colors, it will symbolize the balance of the two worlds of college and the speaker’s Appalachia