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The Bean Trees Book Report

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The fictional novel , The Bean Trees , written by Barbara Kingsolver , takes place in a rural environment called Pittman County in Kentucky during the 1980s. The narrator and protagonist Marietta Greer, who later changed her name to Taylor Greer because she promised she would after stopping at Taylorville, Illinois , decides to leave her hometown to pursue a much more interesting one of her own. To do so ,she buys a 55 Volkswagen and heads to Tucson, Arizona . Taylor Greer is from a poor family in Pittman, who ends up not wanting to be like Newt Hardbine , who drops out of high school and dies after Taylor leaves the county. He is the representation of what could have been Taylor if she hadn’t left . In the journey, Taylor’s life climatically …show more content…

Taylor takes in Turtle and soon they plan their journey . They stopped at a business called Jesus Is Lord Used Tires , and Mattie, a generous woman , gives Taylor a job . She finds an ad in a newspaper and finds Lou Ann for a place to stay . Lou Ann has a child named Dwayne Ray and a husband who left her with the TV. They both find out they were from Kentucky and soon the bonds between their friendships grows and a sense of hospitality is given to Taylor and Turtle. The secured home and Taylor’s love for Turtle is paid off. When Turtle, Lou Ann, and her neighbor Edna, who is somewhat blind , are disturbed by a criminal after he grabs Turtle. Luckily , Edna had a cane and she struck the criminal leaving Turtle on the ground . A social worker witnesses this and finds out that Taylor is not the real mother of Turtle and has no legal rights over her. She would have loss her to the state if the relatives weren’t found. Since this occurrence, her relationships grow stronger between her and Turtle. She pledges to fight for Turtle and does an extra step for keeping her. Ever since Taylor was given Turtle , her responsibility over another human being and dedication to Turtle’s health , show’s that even though she is not the natural mother , she still cares and loves this

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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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Ty Lewis ' life is not a simple one. His parents died in a car accident and his older brother, who he idolizes and tries to take after, is away finishing college. For the time being, ty must live with his aunt and uncle in not exactly ideal living conditions. He has a porta potty in the yard for a bathroom, and he scrubs toilets and bathroom floors for his Uncle Gus ' cleaning business. Things should get better as his brother Thane Tiger Lewis is about to be drafted into the NFL and come into some serious money.

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630 Words | 3 Pages

The thugs looked over to find where the howling was coming from and Lemon Brown lunged himself at them, causing himself to roll down the stairs. The thugs went outside of the house and after awhile they left. After seeing how much Lemon Brown adored his treasures, Greg realized that his dad caring so much for him meant everything. Greg now appreciates the lectures about decisions he was trying to make. Greg’s treasure was his relationship with his father all because of Lemon Brown’s story.

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262 Words | 2 Pages

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.

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789 Words | 4 Pages

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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423 Words | 2 Pages

Turtle warmed up faster to Esperanza than she did to anyone else throughout the novel. Aside from Taylor, Esperanza is the only other woman Turtle has called “Ma,” she only ever called Taylor ``Ma” because Taylor has made it clear she’s there for Turtle as a mother figure rather than someone who will come and go. Taylor’s reaction was a bit jealous because she realized how close the connection was getting, but it adds to why Esperanza wasn’t acting when she visited the office over Turtle’s

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1270 Words | 6 Pages

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.

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1017 Words | 5 Pages

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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698 Words | 3 Pages

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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610 Words | 3 Pages

Her mother, Loretta needs to improve her mothering skills in order for her child to behave as she should; despite of her conditions. Loretta still has Tracy in a baby’s crib and she also had gave Tracy some Cola-Cola soda and mixing it with Tracy’s old milk in a bottle. Thomas, which is also Loretta’s son. He is battling with safety for himself at school and honestly he is trying to fit in

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1132 Words | 5 Pages

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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185 Words | 1 Pages

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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1437 Words | 6 Pages

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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708 Words | 3 Pages

She is protective towards her brother. She has never let Ryan get away with teasing David. On the other hand, Ryan never learns to not make fun of David in front of Catherine. Even though David embarrasses Catherine, she loves David. She shows the true responsibility of an older sibling.

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479 Words | 2 Pages

The town’s economy which once flourished in agriculture has begun to change, and is slowly being replaced by modern industry. The once proud plantation style mansions with “a big squarish frame” and “decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies” such as Miss Emily’s home, have now become “encroached and obliterated” with more economically friendly “garages and cotton gins”. The town, once ran by aldermen such as colonel Sartoris, who served in the Civil war, is now being ran by new aldermen who are apart of “the new generation, with its more modern ideas”. While Miss Emily is stuck in a past that no longer exists her home town of Jefferson is evolving right before her, and she is not able to keep up and becomes swallowed by all the progression. Faulkner is criticizing the south for wanting to hold onto its traditions.

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