Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees

Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees

It has often been suggested that some southwestern literature is based on the experiences of others. With this suggestion, it has been demonstrated that these experiences are incorporated with the intention of portraying the experiences of others as a learning tool; for both the reader and the writer. Some may also imply that literature, therefore, may impose a learning opportunity in itself. In correspondence with this belief, it must be suggested that the classic novel, The Bean Trees, could be considered a learning experience for the audience as well as Barbara Kingsolver in relation to the catalyzing character Marietta "Missy"/Taylor Greer along with additional inspirational characters that effect her and are likewise effected along the way.

Barbara Kingsolver is a part of the characters she creates just as much as her characters are a part of her. The storyline of her novel parallels the storyline of her own life discreetly, yet it's presence is undeniable given Barbara‘s background. Imagine being Kingsolver , uncomfortably pregnant and unable to sleep from the dreary darkness at dusk until the dully drawn dawn. She finds sanctuary in a clammy cramped closet where she begins to ease her mind by implementing her own distresses and successes through fictional characters with the unfortunate yet fortunate Bean Tree beginnings. Henceforth, an ongoing theme, such as single motherhood, is consistently demonstrated throughout the novel by the main character Taylor Greer, and accented by minor characters such as Lou Anne and Sandi. There are many more predominant themes presiding the literature including child abuse, poverty, homelessness, immigration, and monogamy, all implemented with inspiring strength. "I found my head rights, Mama. They're coming with me (Kingsolver 32)," Taylor declares upon acquiring Turtle. This point marks the movement of the novel henceforth, as Taylor learns the difference between a burden and a blessing.

For someone who is convicted of "illuminating the invisibles" through her work, Barbara Kingsolver surely sheds an eerie, dreary light on an oppressed Turtle. Ignorantly bathing in her innocence, Turtle is the spotlight of the dawn of human suffering, child abuse and molestation within the prose. The abused child splashes around the bathtub while Taylor fights to contain her repulse. "The Indian child was a girl. A girl, poor thing. That fact had already burdened her short life with a kind of misery I could not imagine.