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Missy Changes In The Bean Trees

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In The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, Missy, The novel’s main character changes. Said changes are what defines Missy as a whole. These changes occur as a result of Obstacles she comes across and conquers. Such obstacles drive on these changes through either fear or just a lack of will, suppressing her mind and then being confronted with a need for change The reader can see Missy’s first transition when she has a change of heart in the people of Pittman County. We see another one towards her feeling about Pittman County as a whole. This change causes her to go cross country! However possibly Missy’s greatest adjustment is her name. Missy changes her name; She changes her name when she “coasted into taylorville on the fumes. And so I am …show more content…

These Obstacle bring on the change of Taylor and Taylor’s spirit. One obstacle is Pittman county. In Pittman county, women are objectified and treated as less than men. Pittmann schools were especially tough on women as she describes it as “girls were dropping by the wayside like seeds of a poppyseed bun” (3). This explains that Pittman County schools were so rough on women, They had to drop out. This is also why Taylor travels as far away as possible. While especially shocking, The novel could not have telegraphed more what Taylor’s biggest obstacle was: putting air in a tire. On page one of the novel, the very first page, it reads, “I had been afraid of putting air in a tire ever since…” (1). This for a while keeps taylor from doing anything with tires. Ironicly when Taylor gets a job at a tire shop she is at first unable to do most things she feels uncomfortable and asks ‘“can i put this down now?”’(84). This shows that Taylor is unable to do certain things based on her fear of exploding tires. The Bean Trees By barbara Kingsolver a series of changes occur as result of obstacles forming and the need to move past these obstacles. The novel is a mellow book on the outside, but on the inside there is a whole storm of battles being fought. These battles are being fought between fear and confidence, and in this book, Confidence wins without a

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