Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees

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Prompt 1: Analysis on how Motherhood contributes to the theme of “The Bean Trees”

Throughout Barbara Kingsolver's famous novel, “The Bean Trees,” the major theme of community and family love has been circling around, but the recurring motif of motherhood stands out. Kingsolver portrays many types of mothers, birth, adoptive and surrogate: Taylor and her mother, Taylor and Turtle, Lou Ann and Dwayne, Esperanza and Ismene, and Mattie and her house full of refugees.

While the theme of community and family love are significant in the story, the most important role shown was of motherhood. Even though the characters’ situations are different, the fact they share a similarity of a role as a mother is evident. Kingsolver used several unconventional
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