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Analysis Of The Bean Trees By Barbara Kingsolver

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The Bean Trees “The Bean Trees” was written by Barbara Kingsolver, a novelist, poet, and essayist. She was born on April 8, 1955. Kingsolver was raised in eastern Kentucky but now resides in Tucson, Arizona with her husband and children. The purpose of “The Bean Trees” is to inform people of the hardships of the real world and to promote social change.
As a matter of fact, this novel was published in the United States during eighties but 1988, to be exact. The significance of the 80s is that literature took a turn into post modernism which brings in stories of women of ethnic backgrounds, children and the working class. Post modernism is present in the book from Taylor’s Indian blood to being “the cleaning lady’s daughter.” During this time women were gaining their independence from men and becoming strong independent beings like the women Kingsolver portrayed.
The Bean Trees began in Pittman County, Kentucky during the early 1980s. Afterwards Taylor drove into …show more content…

The police began an investigation and realized that Taylor isn’t the legal guardian. During meetings with a social worker, Turtle was given dolls which she buried into the ground like all her bean seeds. The social worker steered Taylor into the right direction, helping her adopt Turtle. She came up with a plan to head for Oklahoma to find her legal parents and drop Estevan and Esperanza off where they’ll be safe. She searched the Oklahoma bar in which she first found Turtle but realized the same people weren’t there anymore, she couldn’t find the parents. They headed for Lake o’ the Cherokees. Turtle called out “Mama” at the sight of cemeteries but grasped the idea that Turtle’s mother had died. Esperanza and Estevan portrayed Turtle’s actual parents in front of a legal advisor who grants Taylor adoption papers. Esperanza and Estevan are dropped off at a sanctuary in Oklahoma. Mother and daughter return home happily as a vegetable soup

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This passage is located on page 192 of Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees. At this point in the novel, Taylor has recently learned that she has no legal claim over Turtle, and must either hand her over to the state or figure out a way to adopt her. In the passage above, while considering which choice she should make about the young girl, Taylor is intrigued by a photo on a calendar in the kitchen.

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Have you ever wondered what all immigrants have in common? In the Bean Trees by Barbra Kingsolver it tells about some immigrants from Guatemala. The immigrant experience is classified by not giving up, escaping a past worse life, and making sacrifices. In the bean trees it follows Esparanza, and Estevan two immigrants from Guatemala.

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The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver and My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult are both books that show a moral dilemma. Anna forces a moral dilemma when she chooses to sue for the rights to her body. Taylor is constantly facing dilemmas in her life, such as whether or not the keep Turtle or to help Estevan and Esperanza. These books have many similarities as well as differences in aspects including theme, characters, plot, and genre. The theme in The Bean Trees is that family does not have to be blood related.

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It shows Taylor resists accepting Arizona, where she and Turtle will start a new life here. By the time Taylor “were in sight of Tucson it became clear what those goofy pink clouds had been full of hail… the sun came out even before the hail stopped. There was a rainbow over the mountains behind the city.” (Kingsolver 36). Although Taylor has mix emotion in Tucson, Arizona, Kingsolver reflect setting, as a mode of characterization to provide insight into Taylor’s life in Arizona will have better days to come for

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To began with, Symbolism is literary element used often in The Bean Trees and Mirror Image. In Kingsolvers book, symbolism is used in the very title The Bean Trees. Turtle’s first word is bean which she gets from seeing a wisteria plant that has gone into seed form and produced bean like pods. Later the author emphasizes the symbolism by having Turtle read about how the plant thrives in bad conditions.

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This is “bad news” for Taylor, because it means that the government has the right to legally take Turtle away from her. Since Taylor has “no legal claim” to Turtle, she must either find a way to adopt Turtle, or give her up to the government. Taylor has started to learn how to thrive with Turtle, but she must first go through the struggle of finding Turtle’s legal guardian, and having them give Turtle to her. Since she doesn’t even know the name of the woman who gave Turtle to her, finding her, or finding another way to adopt Turtle, will be one of Taylor’s hardest trials in stage three of her journey. After Taylor successfully adopts Turtle, they visit a library while waiting for

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At first Taylor is unsure about what her life may look like but by the end of the story the reader gets to see Taylor with her new family in Tucson, Arizona and predict what may happen next. Without Turtle, Taylor will not get to experience motherhood and will never learn the true definition of love maturity, and

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Turtle’s vegetable-soup song mentions the people she accepts and cares for in her life and who she has a strong connection with. Esperanza, a Guatemalan immigrant builds a strong bond with Turtle as they spend quite a bit of time together on their road trip to Oklahoma with Taylor and Estevan. Because of the strong bond that they have built, Esperanza is mentioned as an ingredient in Turtle’s vegetable-soup. Although Esperanza has a positive connotation with plants and vegetables late in this novel, they were earlier used to describe her rough past in Guatemala and difficult time adjusting to her new life living as an immigrant in the United States. Earlier on in this novel, Estevan explains to Taylor that when he and Esperanza lived in Guatemala, “police would come and set their houses and fields on fire and make them move again” (195) in order to show the common people their superiority.

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After this incident, Taylor was convinced that she can’t take care of Turtle since she couldn’t keep her safe from the world. According to The Bean Trees, “…That they have the right to take her out of a perfectly good home and put her in some creepy orphanage where they probably make them sleep on burlap bags and feed them pig slop”(Kingsolver 235). Even though, Taylor believed that she can’t keep Turtle safe from this society where people try to hurt a child so young, on the other hand, Lou Ann thinks that Taylor can keep Turtle safer than anybody else. According to Abuse in America, “As of September 30, 2004, there were 517,000 children in foster care in the United States” (“Abuse in America”). This shows that people that are living the way that Lou Ann has described is not safe for children, not to mention that lots of people, because of poverty put their children

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Within the novel “The Bean Trees”, written by Barbara Kingsolver. Within the book, abuse is taken into different terms. Abuse is not only physical, but it can also be categorized as sexual, mental, verbal, psychological, financial, elder, and spiritual abuse. The only four types of abuse that were introduced into the book was sexual, physical, verbal, and The first type of abuse is child abuse.

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Over the years, immigrants have influenced many aspects of American society and has had a vital role in shaping the United States to what it is today. According to the US Census Bureau, an agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System responsible for producing data about the American people and economy, “non-Hispanic white population in the U.S. declined from 85 percent in 1965 to 62.2 percent in 2014, and the forecast is for the percentage of non-Hispanic whites to fall to 43.6 percent in 2060” (qtd. in Walsh). Despite the rise of immigrants and the profound impact they have had on society, many immigrants face perpetual discrimination; this idea has appeared many times throughout Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Bean Trees. Taking place during the 1970s, the main character, Taylor, moves from Kentucky to Arizona; along the way, she meets Esperanza and Estevan, illegal immigrants from Guatemala. As she gets to know them better, she notices they are forced to live a monotonous, arduous life which implies that immigrants face prejudice from Americans who claim to be accepting.

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It may skew her thinking and at times be subjective. The intended audience is someone who is studying literature and interested in how women are portrayed in novels in the 19th century. The organization of the article allows anyone to be capable of reading it.

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The nineteenth century is considered to be one of the most revolutionary centuries for woman’s rights and the feminist movement. During the 19th century, women were subject to the accepted standards and roles placed on them by society and any other actions were seen as deviant and unacceptable. The feminist movement during this time was then created by a group of women who believed in the feminist theory. The feminist theory stated that men and women should be given the same opportunity for political, economic, and social equality. During this movement and time of gradual change, a few women began to publish novels in which they explored and exposed the unfair societal limitations and pressures placed on women.

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