Sometimes giving up is the best option. In chapter four of The Bean Trees, Lou Ann Ruiz takes note of this same saying. Harboring a seven month-old child in her belly, her quiet disposition makes her a primary target of abuse- though not the kind of abuse expected from her husband of four years. On Halloween, Lou Ann returns to her humble home only to find that Angel, her husband, had left her. A few months later she gives birth and her mother and grandmother visit from Kentucky. She contemplates…
Words 413 - Pages 2
Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees and Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, a female character finds the strength within herself to rebel against her situation to become less dependent on male characters and become a self reliant, independent woman. The women in both novels progress from being in a submissive situation where they rely on a male character, to learning how to rebel to the situation, and finally becoming self reliant and independent women. At the onset of their situations, Lou Ann from The Bean Trees and Skeeter…
Words 2430 - Pages 10
She first stays in a motel and then reads the newspaper for some houses that allowed two people to live in. She found a lady named Lou Ann Ruiz, who was renting her house for people to live in. During their first meeting, they got really close and they also had children who went together and they started out with a good family. “The New Year’s Pig”, is some kind of celebration that welcomes…
Words 2248 - Pages 9
relationship. In the novel The Bean Trees, the protagonist Taylor Greer, who is also known as Missy, escapes a small town life. She went through high school by avoiding pregnancy, getting a job working at a hospital, and saving up money to buy herself an old Volkswagen bug. She embarks on a journey and decides she will drive until her car runs out of gas. Her car breaks down in the middle of Cherokee, Oklahoma. Eventually Taylor and her child Turtle make it to Tucson, Arizona. Lou Ann has been abandoned by…
Words 245 - Pages 1
The Loving Support in The Bean Trees Vivian Greene once said that, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning how to dance in the rain” (“Goodreads.com”). In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, The Bean Trees, she brings together a group of dysfunctional people at their most desperate times. She emphasizes the importance of a community and loyalty. Every character has strengths however, they still need someone by their side that they can count on. Kingsolver reveals how someone…
Words 1906 - Pages 8
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…
Words 364 - Pages 2
There are many ways that “Under Pressure” can relate to “The Bean Trees” by Barbara Kingsolver. In “The Bean Trees,” the main character, Taylor, struggles as she realizes that the world isn’t what she once thought it to be. As she learns more about her new family and friends, such as Turtle, Lou Ann, Estevan, and Esperanza, she feels deeply saddened and moved by what they’ve been through. She tries to create a new life for herself, and quickly realizes that life has introduced her to people she loves…
Words 185 - Pages 1
Barbara Kingsolver’s book, The Bean Trees sounds almost like a gender activist exposé of some sort. Unlike other books that have been read in this class, this book overtly and covertly puts into mainstream social, and gender issue through the likable flawed and imperfect characters used in the novel. She pushes to the society social problems that women face, which the society has refused to acknowledge existed or simply ignored. The novel encapsulates societal burden – single motherhood, molestation…
Words 513 - Pages 3
Throughout Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees, the people throughout the bookl form fast friendships and become important to one another.In the spring, nature goes through the proces of rebirth, what apears to be dead in the winter comes alive, people also go through this proces. It is July 1st, not a single cloud in the sky. Mattie wants Taylor, Estevan, Esperanza, and Lou Ann to come with her to the desert for a special occasion. Taylor and Lou Ann leave their children with Edna and Virgie and get in…
Words 409 - Pages 2
In Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees, motherhood is a theme that is constant in the book. All of the situations are different and similar. The main character Taylor daughter of a single mother becomes an unlikely mother to turtle a child whose mom died. Lou Ann comes from a traditional family in Kentucky. She becomes a single mother to Dewayne Ray after her husband Angel leaves her. Esperanza is an illegal immigrant from Guatemala. She had a child she had to leave behind in Guatemala to save…
Words 282 - Pages 2