...When reading The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver there are many moments Kingsolver goes against the nuclear family idea that the American society has formed. A nuclear family involves a father, a mother, and children living together. The biological mother is often viewed as the natural caregiver, and the father is viewed as the provider. However in The Bean Trees this is not the case. Instead Kingsolver has us rethink the definition of family Kingsolver biggest non-nuclear relationship is between Taylor and Turtle “ “Are you saying you want to give me this child?” “Yes” ” (Kingsolver 18). This is a definite non-nuclear family. Not only is it just Taylor and Turtle, but Turtle isn’t even biologically Taylor’s. Also there is the fact...
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...Summer Reading Book Project-Book Report The book The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, is about a young girl from rural Kentucky, who decides to leave Kentucky for good and go on a journey, but soon finds herself the mother of a baby girl. This young girl is Marietta Greer, but on her journey, changed her name to Taylor Greer because of a promise she made to herself to change her name to wherever the gas tank ran out. As Taylor was heading west, her car broke down in the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma and outside of an old bar, a woman claiming to be the sister of the baby’s mother, left the baby in Taylor’s care with the only information being that she was born in a Plymouth car. Taylor names the baby Turtle and brings her along on her journey and Turtle was discovered to have been abused and sexually molested. Eventually they make it to Tucson, Arizona, where Taylor meets Mattie, a kind woman who is the owner of an auto-repair shop is Jesus is Lord Used Tires. Taylor meets and becomes great friends with Lou Ann Ruiz, another Kentuckian living in Tucson who was abandoned by her husband and has a baby boy. They meet Estevan and Esperanza, a married couple who fled from Guatemala in order to save the lives of the 17 union members but had to leave their child, who looked like Turtle, behind. Mattie, who has been helping illegal immigrants by providing them shelter, becomes worried about Estevan and Esperanza’s safety, so Taylor decides to transport them to another sanctuary for illegal...
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...The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, begins when Taylor (whose real name is Marietta) decides that it's time to leave Pittman, Kentucky, where she lives with her mother, and make something of herself. She buys a 1955 Volkswagen and embarks on a personal journey of self-discovery, leaving everything behind, including her name. When her car runs out of gas in Taylorville, Illinois, she decides that her new name will be Taylor. From that point on, she is known as Taylor Greer. In the middle of Oklahoma, on land owned by the Cherokee Nation, Taylor's car breaks down. Taylor stops to have it repaired and to get something to eat at a restaurant. Her life changes dramatically when, sitting in her car and ready to leave the restaurant and continue...
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...Allaina Boggs, period 4 14 October 2014 Mr. Archibald Eng 10H: Outside Reading Response Annotated Bibliography Kingsolver, Barbara. The Bean Trees. New York: Harper & Row, 1988. Print. Marietta Greer, who goes by Missy and is later know as Taylor, embarks on an unforgettable journey from Kentucky, to Oklahoma, to Arizona, and finally back to Oklahoma again. Taylor desperately wants to escape the “regular life” of a Kentucky teenager which is getting married young, having a teenage pregnancy, and dropping out of high school only to have a horrid future; so, she sets out in her ’55 Volkswagen bug, stopping wherever her car broke down. However, during her first pit stop at a bar/coffee shop in Oklahoma, an old Cherokee woman lays a baby in the seat of Taylor’s car and tells her to take care of it. They stay at the Broken Arrow Motor Lodge for a while, where Taylor...
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...Angelica Acevedo Professor Coogan Introduction to Fiction September 24, 2014 Barbara Kingsolver: The Bean Trees The Bean Trees is a novel about a young girl who becomes a young woman by overcoming a series of trials that life throws at her. Part of those “trials” is taking care of a three...
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...Although the plots of their novel might not be similar, John Steinbeck in Of Mice and Men and Barbara Kingsolver in The Bean Trees both discuss social injustice. Throughout the novel main characters experience or see social injustice occur. Steinbeck and Kingsolver write about social injustice to educate readers and to show them that social injustice could happen to anyone around them. In the Bean trees, reader's encounter injustice through the lens of Taylor Greer who is experiencing all these things for the first time. At first when Taylor is suddenly forced to deal with responsibilities of motherhood, she discovers that the child that she was taking care of was abused. Taylor is shocked to a great deal because she can’t believe someone...
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...much help from the community and my dad’s parents so they felt like they had so much supporter that made them feel prepared and ready for what life had in hands for them. Now twenty years later they are living the life they have wanted. The Bean Trees by barbara Kingsolver also deals with having moments of difficulties and drastic changes in life even without you planning those changes but by having those changes you begin to go with the flow in order to continue with your life....
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...The Key to Being a Good Mother Motherhood is an unconditional love that every mother provides to their child. It is a common motif throughout The Bean Trees, written by Barbara Kingsolver. Lou Ann, one of the main characters, is a single mother because her husband, Angel had left her with no reasons so she has to raise her son Dwayne Ray by herself. Lou Ann had faced multiple challenges, but she came through with the help of her friends and families. Lou Ann is the best mom in the novel. Lou Ann is the best mom because she is determined, thoughtful, and cautious. Lou Ann is a determined person which is a sign of being a good mother. After a while not being employed, Lou Ann decides to look for a job. “On the way home Lou Ann went to the...
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