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Character analysis essay examples
Representation of family in literature
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Character analysis essay examples
Representation of family in literature
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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.
Some people mature faster than others, and some take their time doing so. In the book The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, a young woman named Taylor happens to end up with a little girl, Turtle. Throughout the story, Kingsolver mentions birds often. Birds represent maturity to Turtle. She use birds to compare to Turtle's life and her situations while she is maturing and growing up.
The Bean Trees tackles such huge issues as divorce, child abuse, and illegal immigration through Taylor Greer, a girl from rural Kentucky who, while trying to start a new life for herself outside of her home town of Pittman County, ends up with an abandoned child who was molested in her previous home, and thus is reluctant to speak. Taylor names the baby girl Turtle, and when her car breaks down in Tucson, and she can’t afford to fix it, she decides to live there, renting from a recently divorced mom named Lou Ann. The Bean Trees is beautiful book about Taylor trying her best to raise Turtle despite the challenges presented. The book goes on to criticizes the United States’ immigration policies through the story of Esperanza and Estevan. Esperanza
How The Bean Trees is a coming of age themed novel In The Bean Trees Taylor and Lou Ann struggle to come of age, or mature, with these two being very important characters I believe a major theme of the book is coming of age. There are many pieces of evidence to support this claim, therefore I will provide them. Our first example would have to be Taylor’s journey throughout the book.
The theme from the novel Willow and Twig written by Jean little that resonated with me was family, specifically the relationship between brother and sister. This theme stood out for me the most because it reminded me of how my brother and I acted together throughout my entire life. My brother and I are also half-brother and half-sister, but we never talk about it. Willow and Twig are also in the same situation but it never bothers them to act any differently either. Ever since I can remember my brother has called me by the name Twig, and I thought it was very ironic being the younger sibling in my family.
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.
Thought out a persons ever changing life, the one thing that is always consistent is their name. However, sometimes a persons identity will change so much that their own name seems foreign when speaking it out loud. This creates the need for a new name to match a new identity. Kingsolvers The Bean Trees and Lena Coakley’s Mirror Image both apply characterization, conflict, and symbolism to show how identity changes with names and labels.
Kamerin Litten Analysis and Overview of the Works of Barbara Kingsolver The work of Barbara Kingsolver in The Bean Trees, a heartwarming, funny, touching debut as reflected in the novel's own sequel Pigs in Heaven, opens in rural Kentucky. The main character, Taylor Greer is gutsy and practical. She decides she wants to make her escape to a more interesting life, leaving her small hometown. After a woman puts a baby in the front seat of Taylor’s car, telling her to take it, she names the baby Turtle and Taylor and Turtle make it to Tucson, Arizona. After an incident with Turtle and her blind babysitter, the police investigation into the attack on Turtle reveals that Taylor has no legal claim on Turtle.
In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Bean Trees, Taylor represents a bildungsroman character. A bildungsroman story is a coming of age story that consists of four stages. In the first stage of a bildungsroman character’s journey, she experiences a loss or painful experience that drives her to start a new life. The character goes through a baptismal rite in the second stage, which always involves water. The character endures many difficult trials in the third stage, but ends up gaining a new insight about life in the fourth stage.
In the Bean Tree men see what they want to see but don't see it from a woman's perspective. Lou Ann is on a bus and she is reading a pamphlet about woman's pregnancy. “On the bus she decided it must have something to do with the fact that the pamphlets were put together by men, who in her opinion liked the looks of a mother and baby better than a pregnant woman. She was fairly sure about this. On the bus, for instance, several men would stand up to offer her a seat, but they wouldn't quite look at her.
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.
“Family” is a very important symbol for the Mckinley’s. Hutchinson talks about the symbolic interaction theory, and as humans interact with each other they attach meanings to symbols in their lives. In the case of the Mckinley family, “Family” is very important to them because it drives their behavior. Bethany, Stanley, Ruth and Marcia hold a strong relationship with each other and even though their external world seems to be falling apart, their sense of self is strong because they provide for their family through love and support. Stanley despite finding work is a great caretaker for his mother.
Many family relationships can be located in Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns, and all the of them
Family is shown throughout this book as the people who stick with a person, a biological relative, and these people in turn contribute to Celie’s development as a character. Family according to Alice Walker is many things, one of which is the person or people who stick with an individual through the good times and the bad times. For Celie in the beginning she had none of these people, but towards the end these people for her were Shug Avery, her friend and lover, and Albert, her husband who she did not want to marry. When introducing Nettie to Shug Avery and Albert, Celie refers to them as “My peoples. This is Shug and Albert” (Walker, 287).
Even though Fern was not a concrete figure of the Cooke family in the elder generation’s eyes, she played a stronger role in developing the younger generation’s family atmosphere than any other family member did. Rosemary feels such a strong connection to Fern that it’s nearly impossible to not consider her part of the family. This challenges the social construct of a family, and it shows how society should be and has progressively been more welcoming when it comes to defining what a family is. We can choose who we let into our families, and we get to create our own meaning of family. Family should be a group that you can be yourself with, a group that you should be able to cherish and experience life