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
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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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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
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Barbara Kingsolver uses the motif of mother-child relationships to accentuate the value of parenting in her novel, The Bean Trees. Main character Taylor Greer drives across the country in search of a bigger direction than small town country life. Her biggest fear was becoming barefoot and pregnant in Kentucky with no future prospects. Realizing she needed to find an escape, she buys a car and takes off in search of a new world. In the process of her transcontinental voyage, she becomes the caretaker
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In The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver Taylor refuses to remain in her hometown forever. The town of Pittman, Kentucky only leads to teenage pregnancy and motherhood until death. To not fall into the majority of Pittman’s stereotypical girl image, she goes on a road trip west. Just when she thinks she is home free, Taylor is left with an abandoned three-year-old American Indian girl. Taylor ends up as an unplanned single mother. Taylor has had many significant changes through the book that will
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that John Grisham is a marvelous writer and it was impossible not to like his books. The description sparked my interest by saying, “Then Warren threw a fastball that would change their lives forever.” (Grisham Cover). I wanted to know more. The questions in my mind were “What life changing event happened?” “Was it something spectacular or something tragic?” I had no idea what was actually going to happen and when I read what this so called life changing event was the one thing running through my
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the novel The Bean Trees by Barabara Kingsolver, Taylor the main character sets off on a journey for all these reasons. On her journey to self-discovery Taylor Greer manages to overcome her weaknesses The beans that are continually revealed throughout the novel represent Taylor’s life. The earliest mention of the beans took place when Taylor takes a close look at the reality of her life. “I had never done anything more interesting for a living than… picking bugs off somebody’s bean vines for a penny
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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
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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
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Rhizobia Tires. Beans. Rain. Throughout Taylor's twisting and turning journeys, she's used countless metaphors to describe her feelings. In this particular chapter, Taylor relates rhizobia’s aid to wisteria to the different people in her and Turtle’s lives that help each other, for example Edna and Virgie. Although they may not realize it, Taylor and Turtle fit into that category. To elaborate, “The wisteria vines on their own would never get by…” (305), just as Turtle would not get by without Taylor;
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