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 immigrants in Oklahoma where she’ll also look for Turtle’s relatives and try to legally adopt Turtle. She didn’t find anyone, so in Oklahoma, Estevan and Esperanza pretended to be Turtle’s biological parents and they signed the papers for a legal adoption making Taylor a legal guardian of Turtle. After transporting the couple to a sanctuary, they say goodbye and Taylor, along with her now legal daughter, returns to Tucson, Arizona, a place they now call home.
Two of the characters, Taylor Greer and Lou Ann Ruiz, are both similar and different in many ways. They are both either a mother (or guardian) taking care of a child, without the help and support of a husband. Their situations in life are similar, but the characteristics of these two characters are very different. Taylor Greer is self owned, determined, and confident. As a young girl, she has her goals set and knows the life she wants for herself. Being independent and assertive, Taylor does not need a man and she tried to avoid marriage and pregnancy, until she was given an abandoned child to care for. Unlike the confident Taylor, Lou Ann is shy, soft-spoken, and she worries about everything. These two characters appear to be exact opposites of each other, and throughout the course of the novel, these two characters undergo growth and maturation, and at some point, they actually switch characters. When Taylor had to deal with the possibility of losing Turtle, Taylor started doubting herself like Lou Ann did, and Lou Ann tries to become a stronger person for Taylor. Taylor realizes her place in this huge world and learns to accept the possibility of both romantic and parental love. On the other hand, Lou Ann, who used to be worried about everything, becomes more confident and calm, especially after deciding to forget her ex-husband and learn to be independent by finding a job to support herself and her child. These two characters have different traits, but they live a similar life taking care of a child as an independent mother. They provided help and support for each other and through the course of the novel, they learned from each other about family, love, and life.
Major themes of The Bean Trees include the importance of family and the need for community as emotional support for individuals facing hardship. Barbara Kingsolver expresses this message to the readers through the stories of both Taylor and Lou Ann. Taylor receives Turtle and together, they form a family bond with Lou Ann and her baby. They’re both in a difficult situation where neither of them could afford much, so they share expenses and help each other survive difficult times. Having been through good and bad times together, they consider each other family and know the good and bad sides of each other. They developed an enduring friendship that’s as strong as any real family’s, providing one another with unconditional love and support. The message regarding the author’s belief in the need for community is also expressed in Taylor’s journey. After moving in with Lou Ann, Taylor finds that she can depend on her friends and neighbors to help care for Turtle, and she meets people who she can depend on and who also depend on her, like Estevan and Esperanza. She risks her life transporting them to a sanctuary in Oklahoma and they risk their lives helping Taylor become the legal guardian of Turtle. Community members support and look out for each other, and the trust and sense of belonging created allows people to grow emotionally. In this novel, Barbara Kingsolver conveys a message to the readers about the values of family and community, with the hope of inspiring them to create strong family and community bonds like Taylor and Lou Ann, making the world a more kind and secure place to live.
From reading this novel, I learned more about gender inequality, the plight of illegal immigrants, and motherhood. Gender inequality is a phenomenon in society, and I didn’t realize how severe it was in society. I used to think in our society, men and women have pretty much equal rights since they could vote and attend college and such, but the author shows us how women suffer difficulties because of their gender. Lou Ann, for one, described how she used to be touched and prodded by men when she took the bus, before she was pregnant. Also, when it was first discovered that Turtle was abused and sexually molested, Taylor had commented about how the burden of being a woman had already affected her. The author had used Turtle as a representative of women in general, facing difficulties just because of their gender. I also learned about the plight of illegal immigrants from this novel because of Mattie, who transports and protects illegal immigrants, and the immigrants Estevan and Esperanza. Before I thought illegal immigrants didn’t deserve sympathy, but this novel taught me to see illegal immigrants in a different way. People often have politically conservative ideas about immigration because they have adapted to a political ideology without considering its moral implications. In this novel, the author depicts the immigrants sympathetically and lets the readers see things from their point of view. I’ve also learned more about motherhood and how difficult it can be. Lou Ann, Taylor, and Esperanza are all mothers who aren’t conventional, but they all love their children. The fact that they place their love for their children over their love for men shows how strong and noble a mother can be. They’re all living in different situations as mothers, but their love for their children is like those of all mothers. This novel has taught me a lot about the values of life, family, and community, and has given me a new prospective of looking at the world.
I would definitely recommend this novel by Barbara Kingsolver to other readers because it does not only have a sad yet uplifting plot, the author also makes her stand with issues in society and teaches the readers the values of family and community. First of all, the author did a fantastic job writing this novel, which was well paced and ended strongly. The author created a novel that wasn’t too depressing by combining sadness and an uplifting feeling. The characters were wonderfully developed, each with their definite personality types. Taylor is confident, determined, and independent while Lou Ann is shy, sweet, and careful. Mattie is wise, tough, and moral. Estevan is intelligent, brave, and very noble. Each and every one of the characters has their own distinct traits, which creates a more realistic story and makes it more relatable. This novel is not just fun to read, but it also teaches readers many things, from society issues to moral values. Throughout the novel, the author explored issues in society like gender inequality, the plight of illegal immigrants, and motherhood. Through this novel, Barbara Kingsolver is helping readers to understand more about the issues we have in our society and how we should take action to make this world a kinder place. From reading this book, readers would not only have fun reading an amazing story, but they would learn from relating to the characters that there are many problems in our society and the world that needs to be confronted. The novel The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver is highly recommended for readers because of the multiple life lessons readers would learn from it.