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Immigrants In Barbra Kingsolver's The Bean Trees

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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. They left Guatemala because they wanted to get a better life. They were apart of a teachers union, they're headquarters were raided by the government because unions were considered communist. “She was taken in a raid on their neighborhood in which Esperanza’s brother and two friends were killed. They were members of Estevan’s teachers’ union. He told me in what condition they had found the bodies." (Kingsolver, …show more content…

For example Mattie helps out a couple illegal aliens and in the process sacrifices her business and her reputation. “What kind of work you looking for?” Mattie rinsed the coffee cups and set them upside down on a shelf. A calendar above the shelf showed a bare-chested man in a feather headdress and heavy gold arm bracelets carrying a woman who looked dead or passed out. “Anything, really. I have experience in house-cleaning, x-rays, urine tests, and red blood counts. And picking bugs off bean vines.” (Kingsolver, 77-78.) This showed Mattie trying to help two immigrants while sacrificing her reputation and business. In The Bean Trees there are examples of people making sacrifices for the greater good. For example Estevan and Esparanza make the sacrifice of never seeing Ismene again, and saving the lives of all the other union members. She was taken in a raid on their neighborhood in which Esperanza’s brother and two friends were killed. They were members of Estevan’s teachers’ union. He told me in what condition they had found the bodies. (Kingsolver, 222.) The sacrifice of never seeing your own child again is a big sacrifice. This matters because they left their only child in Guatemala and moved to the USA and never saw her

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