Toxic Relationships In The Bean Trees

Relationships are always challenging, but there are certain qualities that mark either a beneficial or toxic relationship. Being able to pick up on these signs is very important to maintain a solid relationship. There is unfortunate time when one has to notice a sign of a poor relationship, and figure out how to fix it. In the book The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, the characters Taylor and Lou Ann are great friends living in Arizona. In Matt de la Peña’s Mexican Whiteboy, Danny and Uno become good friends during one summer while playing baseball. In Amy Tan’s short story “Two Kinds”, a girl and her mother struggle to keep up good relations between them. All of these texts have great examples of signs of good and toxic relationships. The

In Barbara Kingsolver's, The Bean Trees, Taylor and Lou Ann are best friends. They live together and talk about everything together. Even when they first meet, they are good friends. Taylor says, “Within ten minutes Lou Ann and I were in the kitchen drinking diet Pepsi and splitting our gussets laughing about homeostasis and bean turds” (Kingsolver, ch. 5). This quote shows the reader that Lou Ann and Taylor are really good friends. They can relate to each other and laugh about things together, even when they first meet. Later in the book, it shows us one of the reasons why they are such good friends. Taylor and Lou Ann stay good friends because they help each other. Taylor says, “I cooked on weekends, and also on any week night that Lou Ann had kept Turtle. It would be a kind of payment. And she would do the vacuuming, because she liked to, and I would wash dishes because I didn’t mind them” (Kingsolver, ch. 7). This quote shows the reader that they are working together, and making it so that both people are happy with the chores they have to do. Lou Ann does the vacuuming because she likes it, and Taylor does the dishes for the same reason. We can learn from this that when two people work together to make everybody happy, it is a clear sign of a mutually beneficial relationship. The first quote shows us how much of a connection they have, and the second shows us why they

In the short story “Two Kinds”, by Amy Tan, the Amy’s mother want her to become a prodigy. She tries everything to get Amy to be a star. She eventually makes Amy play the piano two hours a day. Amy hates that her mother makes her do this, and she tells her that she can’t change to make her mother happy. She says, ‘“Why don’t you like me the way I am?” I cried. “I'm not a genius! I can't play the piano. And even if I could, I wouldn't go on TV for a million dollars!”’ (Tan). In this quote, the character is telling her mother that she can't change, and that she hates trying to change for her mother. Her mother is forcing her to become a star, and Amy hates her for that. Later in the story, Amy snaps at her mother again, but this time much worse. After a terrible piano recital, Amy has set her mind to never playing the instrument again. After a while, her mother says that Amy has to practice. Because Amy has made up her mind, she refuses to go. To make her mother go away, she decided to bring up something that will deeply disturb her mother. She brings up her mother two dead babies. She says, ‘“You want me to be someone I’m not!” I sobbed. “I’ll never be the kind of daughter you want me to be!”... “Is wish I wasn't your daughter”... “Too late to change this,” my mother said… “Then I wish I was dead! Like them!”... Alakazam!- her face went blank’ (Tan). In this instance, Amy hated what her mother was