The Bean Trees Character Analysis

There is always someone that is considered to be a catalyst of change in their lives and the lives of those that surround them. In the novel “The Bean Trees”, the main character named Taylor, who from a very young age, knows that she needs to make changes in her life if she is to not become like the other girls in her small Kentucky town. Taylor embodies a personality of progression and individuality. In the novel Taylor goes through different stages of transformation and learning toward personal maturity that can be divided into 4 major segments. Those segments being first her hometown life and when she decides to move away, second when she arrives to where she moved to, third her developments with the people she meets, and finally her final commitment she makes to

The Bean Trees tackles such huge issues as divorce, child abuse, and illegal immigration through Taylor Greer, a girl from rural Kentucky who, while trying to start a new life for herself outside of her home town of Pittman County, ends up with an abandoned child who was molested in her previous home, and thus is reluctant to speak. Taylor names the baby girl Turtle, and when her car breaks down in Tucson, and she can’t afford to fix it, she decides to live there, renting from a recently divorced mom named Lou Ann. The Bean Trees is beautiful book about Taylor trying her best to raise Turtle despite the challenges presented. The book goes on to criticizes the United States’ immigration policies through the story of Esperanza and Estevan. Esperanza

Argumentative Essay Mildred D. Taylor is an author who writes with compassion and love. She has a goal. Her goal is that her characters ¨unite in love, pride, and respect themselves and won´t let others take advantage of them.¨ Through her hard work and love for writing Taylor accomplished her goals. In the story ¨Song of the Trees” she shows her goals and wants come to life through Cassie and her family. Let's see how many of her goals she actually accomplishes!

Taylor is going through a rebirth in this story. She is one of the main characters in this story. There is evidence throughout the book showing this. There is also evidence throughout the book showing she is going through a rebirth. “When I drove over the Pittman line I made two promises to myself” (Kingsolver pg.15).Taylor has left Kentucky to start a new life.

Throughout Olive Ann Burns’ Cold Sassy Tree, technology played a crucial role in the town of Cold Sassy and its advancement into the twentieth century. By the end of the novel, the translation from old to new is symbolized by a change in the town’s name, going from Cold Sassy to Progressive City. When that last sassafras tree, the same tree that Cold Sassy taken its name from, was cut down to make more room for roads, it marked the dawn of a new era. However, this development could not have gone without there being both positive and negative attributes of each machine. It is the acceptance of modern technology contributed to the growth of society.

In The Bean Tree’s, Taylor’s character grows and changes quite frequently throughout the book. When Taylor goes off on her own she becomes even more worldly and cultured. Not that she was ever naive, but experiencing and hearing things like Estevan and his wife's story then Turtle’s prowler encounter opens her up to the real corruption in the world which gives her character a strong desire to make the world better and help those who are mistreated. She also becomes more independent and strong willed from these experiences which is apparent from her name changing decisions. For, it is a very private decision and yours alone to

She says “With a kind of misery I could not imagine.” Taylor is realizing the new horrors of the world and the new found empathy for this child. She acts in a noble manner by taking in Turtle and not putting her back on the street. This is a true act of courage, that now every human has in them but Taylor did; she had the courage to take in Turtle but she then developed compassion and love for the child that she did not birth.

(134) This shows Taylor would give up her only freetime just to know that Turtle is in safe hands. As her love and affection grows towards Turtle, Taylor would do anything to keep Turtle safe and starts becoming more organized with motherly schedules. Starting out as a confused young lady, Taylor Greer matures into a loving individual that is not scared to take risks. Throughout the book, The Bean Trees, written by Barbra Kingsolver, readers get to see Taylor grow up through her eyes and narration.

Another crucial aspect of a quality bildungsroman piece is the search for a meaningful existence carried out by the main character or protagonist. In a bildungsroman, the main character must have an epiphany somewhere throughout the story which causes them to realize their place in society. This epiphany is influenced by their journey away from home, and gives them insight to the meaning of their existence (Casano). John Grady Cole’s search for existence in All the Pretty Horses is long and painful when looking at his journey to Mexico as a whole. Cole decides to stay in Mexico after meeting the love of his life, Alejandra, which is when he discovers the meaning of his life (Delafuente).

This passage is located on page 192 of Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees. At this point in the novel, Taylor has recently learned that she has no legal claim over Turtle, and must either hand her over to the state or figure out a way to adopt her. In the passage above, while considering which choice she should make about the young girl, Taylor is intrigued by a photo on a calendar in the kitchen.

Women , now as much as ever, struggle with gender roles and expectations in society. For example, many would be surprised to learn that a woman who does the same job as a man makes 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. Barbara Kingsolver exemplifies this idea in her novel The Bean Trees, a story about a young woman who struggles to survive as she travels across the country from Pittman County to Tucson, OK, illegally adopting a baby along the way. Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees argues that American societies’ gender roles influence the treatment of women as well as shapes their character and personality, pressuring women across America to conform to the propagandized stereotypes. The Bean Trees, specifically regarding Lou Ann, expresses

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver uses birds to represent several of the main characters in the novel. Taylor saw in the desert birds nesting in a cactus which shows the connection between several characters in the novel. Turtle represents the birds in the nest because she is depending on taylor just like the birds depend on the cactus for shelter. Also it shows how how turtle in not where she is meant to be because birds usually nest on trees.

In The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, Missy, The novel’s main character changes. Said changes are what defines Missy as a whole. These changes occur as a result of Obstacles she comes across and conquers. Such obstacles drive on these changes through either fear or just a lack of will, suppressing her mind and then being confronted with a need for change The reader can see Missy’s first transition when she has a change of heart in the people of Pittman County.

After this incident, Taylor was convinced that she can’t take care of Turtle since she couldn’t keep her safe from the world. According to The Bean Trees, “…That they have the right to take her out of a perfectly good home and put her in some creepy orphanage where they probably make them sleep on burlap bags and feed them pig slop”(Kingsolver 235). Even though, Taylor believed that she can’t keep Turtle safe from this society where people try to hurt a child so young, on the other hand, Lou Ann thinks that Taylor can keep Turtle safer than anybody else. According to Abuse in America, “As of September 30, 2004, there were 517,000 children in foster care in the United States” (“Abuse in America”). This shows that people that are living the way that Lou Ann has described is not safe for children, not to mention that lots of people, because of poverty put their children

Family and Friendship are also main aspects of Taylor’s life, along with other main characters in the story, namely Jonah. As these are big themes of the characters lives, they become themes of the novel. The author of Jellicoe Road uses themes to build her characters. This is shown through not only plot but through language. Marchetta uses simple language techniques in a clever way that allows the most intricate characterisations.