Supporting someone means having their back and assisting them with their emotional or physical needs. Barbara Kingsolver frequently demonstrates the need to support others in her novel, The Bean Trees. Throughout the entirety of the novel, the two protagonists, Taylor and Lou Ann, are treated as outcasts in their society. When faced with adversity, they learn to rely on the help of others. They realize the need for an “invisible” support system. Because both Taylor and Lou Ann face unexpected hardships when confronted with the issue of parenthood, they realize, through support from their family and community, you can learn to thrive.
It is a large topic of discussion whether legality or morality is more important. Barbara Kingsolver poses this debate in her book The Bean Trees. This book takes place in the 1980s in Putnam County, Kentucky, and begins with Taylor, the main character, leaving her old house behind to start fresh. Taylor does not get the fresh start she is looking for and instead is given an unwanted responsibility of raising a child. Along her journey to find home, Taylor meets many new friends who help her. Through the illegal ways that Turtle Esperanza and Estevan are taken in by Taylor and Mattie, Kingsolver proves that with regard to family, morality is more important than legality.
Abandonment plays a major role in Barbara Kingsolver's novel. It links all the characters together. Once one abandons, or is abandoned, they find someone else. They all help each other grow and become stronger. Even with something as horrible and hurtful as abandonment, hope can be found. Taylor explains it perfectly to Turtle when she talks about bean trees, "'There's a whole invisible system for helping out the plant that you'd never guess was there.' I loved this idea. 'It's just the same as with people. The way Edna has Virgie, and Virgie has Edna, and Sandi has Kid Central Station, and everyone has Mattie" (227-228). Everyone is linked together and each person has someone to help. This whole cycle is caused by abandonment. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver shows that can be hope and love found in any situation, even in abandonment.
Social support is one of the aspects of the book and what it is, is contact
...them. This makes it easy for everyone to find a character to connect with. There is also a strong theme of survival in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, giving the readers the characteristics it takes to survive poverty. The easy connection with the characters, the lessons they teach us and there fight to make their way out of poverty inspires the readers to do the same. Betty Smith gives a strong voice to the underclass, inspiring them to overcome the struggles of poverty. She allows the reader to see the main characters overcome these problems through education, pride, saving money and persevering in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. This book has affected many peoples lives, like the story of the award winning writer, Jacquelyn Mitchard. We can only hope that this book will continue to inspire readers to overcome the struggles of poverty through the story of the Nolan family.
Betty Smith’s novel A Tree Grows In Brooklyn is a tale of poignant family relationships and childhood and also of grim privation. The story revolves around the protagonist of the story, young Francie Nolan. She is an imaginative, endearing 11-year-old girl growing up in 1912, in Brooklyn, New York. The entire story revolves around Francie and the Nolan family, including her brother Neelie, her mother Katie and her father Johnny. An ensemble of high relief characters aids and abets them in their journey through this story of sometimes bleak survival and everlasting hope. As we find out, the struggle for survival is primarily focused against the antagonist of this story, the hard-grinding poverty afflicting Francie, the Nolan’s and Brooklyn itself. The hope in the novel is shown symbolically in the “The “Tree of Heaven””. A symbol used throughout the novel to show hope, perseverance and to highlight other key points.
The short story “Song of the Trees” by Mildred Taylor is about the time of the Great Depression and how black folks were struggling at that time. The main character of the book is named Cassie. Cassie is a small and curious nine-year old girl. She was born in Mississippi and belongs to an African-American family. She likes to go in the woods and listen to the sound of the trees. The other characters are Christopher - John , Little man, Stacey, Big Ma, Mama, and Papa. This was the time of the Great Depression when the longest economic drop happened. People were short on food, water, and especially money. All people had was each other. The most valuable things in life are love, family, and self respect. That’s what Cassie learned and so did the
In Gary Soto’s short story “Looking for Work” support, and happiness are the essentials to be a successful family. Those two points goes “hand in hand”, a lot of families in todays society gets ripped apart because they have lack of happiness and support. Happiness is nothing that comes over a day or two, it comes when we are surrounded with people that we love. Support and trust are also something that does not comes over a night, that is something that takes time to build. However, support does not mean that we need to support each other economically, we can support each other in many different ways, like be there for someone when they feel down.
The novel challenges the contradicting sides of the expectation and reality of family and how each one contains a symbiotic relationship. The ideal relationship within families differ throughout The Bean Trees. Kingsolver focuses on the relationship between different characters and how they rely on each other to fill the missing gaps in their lives. When Taylor and Lou Ann meet, they form a symbiotic relationship and fill the missing gaps in each others lives. Once the two women move in with each other, Lou Ann fills Taylor’s missing gap of motherly experience and opens her eyes to a life full of responsibilities.
The Bean Trees has the structure of a quest. The protagonist or quester is Taylor Greer. Her place to go or destination of the quest is more of an idea rather than an actual place. It is the idea of a place free of oppression due to her gender and cultural background. She wants a place to start a new life. Taylor’s escape
The Bean Trees is a novel which shows Taylor’s maturation; it is a bildungsroman story. Taylor is a developing or dynamic character. Her moral qualities and outlook undergo a permanent change. When the novel begins, Taylor is an independent-minded young woman embarking on an adventure to a new world. She has no cares or worries. She is confident in her abilities, and is determined to make it through life on her own. As she discovers new things and meets new people, Taylor is exposed to the realities of the world. She learns about the plight of abandoned children and of illegal immigrants. She learns how to give help and how to depend upon the help of others. As she interacts with others, those people are likewise affected by Taylor. The other developing characters are Lou Ann Ruiz, Turtle, and Esperanza. Together they learn the importance of interdependence and find their confidence.
In the novel, The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, we watch as Taylor grows a great deal. This young woman takes on a huge commitment of caring for a child that doesn't even belong to her. The friends that she acquired along the way help teach her about love and responsibility, and those friends become family to her and Turtle. Having no experience in motherhood, she muddles through the best she can, as all mothers do.
In the articles “Springing Forward” by Barbara Kingsolver and “Are Engineered Foods Evil?” by David H. Freedman, the main topic of discussion is about genetically modified foods. When reading the two articles there is are some similarities and differences between them. The two authors have different views on genetically modified foods.
Support is defined as a means to endure bravely or quietly (Merriam-Webster). In Losing Isaiah, Khaila, a recovered crack addict, serves some time incarcerated. She then goes through a rehabilitation program, during which her main source of support was her case worker and counselor. In the process of fully recovering from crack she discovers that her baby, Isaiah, is still alive. With the help of her counselor and a lawyer she is able to endure a long and pressing trial to gain a second chance to be a better mother to Isaiah (Losing Isaiah). In the United States, stories like Khaila�s are constantly replayed. These cases occur more frequently in urban areas, where the majority of women on crack who give birth to crack babies are minority women, usually Hispanic or African American (Thomas). Crack is common in crowded municipalities because it is one of the cheapest and most available drugs in the streets of most inner city communities in America (Thomas). Khaila�s drug habit played directly into the stereotypes of her demographic. In the movie, her situation depicts how the lack of a strong support system leads recovered/recovering crack mothers to resort in little to chances of resuming a normal life when they begin to reshape their lives.
Leon Forrest authored a unique and challenging novel, titled: A Tree More Ancient than Eden, which depicts Nathaniel Witherspoon 's quest for understanding his African American identity. This novel is very different from the traditional narratives that typically flow chronologically; this novel flows through the narrator in a stream of conscious thoughts. Forrest’s novel moves from one incident to another, jumping around in history while carrying around the descriptions of mystical, biblical, and historical events. Through the narrator, the author explores the African American experience and addresses the issues of race that conflict with the narrator. In this essay, I will be discussing how the novel deals with the past, how the author addresses
Social support is defined as the existence and availability of friends and other people, including family, on whom we can rely, in times of need or crisis to give us a positive self-image (Towey, 2013). In addition, social support is provided by those people who express care, value and love towards others. It plays a positive role in psychological adjustment and health and this can be observed in several settings. For example, in developing a strong, mutual tie amongst each other, soldiers ensure the success and survival of their peers. Physicians observe the salutary effects of their attention and concern on their patients’ well-being and recovery from illness. These observations lead to social support playing two major roles in our life: (a) it contributes to positive adjustment and personal development and (b) provides a buffer against the effects of adversity and stress (Sarason, Levine, Basham, & Sarason, 1983).