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The Development of a Motif: Rhizobia in The Bean Trees One might think, based on the cultural importance of individualism in the United States, that a person can lead a successful life without any companions or loved ones. However, in The Bean Trees, author Barbara Kingsolver shows otherwise. Through the development of a flowering plant motif in this novel, the world is shown to be a place where people need others who love and care for them to live a fulfilling life. The motif of flowering plants develops meaning through the author’s continued use. Kingsolver introduces this motif in the chapter “The Miracle of Dog Doo Park” when the wisteria blossoms out of the seemingly hostile environment of the polluted, parched park. The word “miracle” …show more content…
Taylor explains to Turtle that the “wisteria vines on their own would just barely get by, but putthem together with rhizobia and they make miracles" (305). Kingsolver repeats the word “miracle” as a contrast to Taylor’s assumption earlier that the blossoming is not chance and also not possible alone. “On their own” the wisteria would have no beautiful flowers. Through the development of this motif, Kingsolver reveals the necessity of interdependence as the central theme of the novel. In the last chapter, Taylor connects the way rhizobia help wisteria survive to "the way Edna has Virgie, and Virgie has Edna...and everyone has Mattie" (305). The repetition of the word “and” emphasizes how many examples there are of people needing each other—the list could go on and on. By making the relationship between the rhizobia and the wisteria a metaphor for friends and family, Kingsolver suggests that everyone needs “rhizobia” to reach his or her potential. Taylor is “just getting by” (305) in Pittman County until she travels to Tucson, where new friends give her the support she needs to transform into a successful and happy person and become “flowers out of bare dirt” (152). While the “bare dirt” represents malnourishment and
Diane von Furstenberg once stated “I wanted to be an independent woman, a woman who could pay for her bills, a woman who could run her own life.” Independence plays a big role in being able to be successful in life. Taylor, a girl that can be described as “different ,” is a person who is a strong believer in doing things by herself. She moved out when she learned how to drive and never went back. She gains a child and soon settles down in Tucson Arizona, where she starts her own life. In the novel The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, there are many obstacles Taylor goes through to set the theme of independence.
First, Roberta finds her purpose of life with the help of Roxanne. In the beginning, Roberta did not want to cover a tall azalea bush planted by her husband’s mother because she “[runs] out of energy for unwinnable battles against nature” (4). When Roxanne encounters a life issue, she asks for Roberta’s advice of whether she should leave the town. Roberta did not know how to answer and points out that she has been staying in town “chasing [her] tail doing nothing” (21) in the past. Her response reveals her sentiment of feeling trapped in the town and not pursuing her goals or contributing to anything. Roxanne, however, disagrees as she explains that Roberta’s job is not “like the jobs [other] people have … but it’s something to [her] “(39). Roxanne in fact appreciates Roberta’s effort of raising her in the past years and the azalea plant symbolizes Roberta’s work. Although the plant will still
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.
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.
...ots her memory, the blossoms her dreams, and the branches her vision. After each unsuccessful marriage, she waits for the springtime pollen to be sprinkled over her life once again. Even after Tea Cake's death, she has a garden of her own to sit and revel in.
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.
There were many sacrificial elements that existed in The Bean Trees. Sacrifices that the characters in the novel made for the benefit of others or themselves. These sacrifices played a role almost as significant as some of the characters in the book. Some prime examples of these sacrifices are Mattie’s will to offer sanction to illegal immigrants, the fact that Taylor sacrificed the whole success of her excursion by taking along an unwanted, abused Native-American infant, and Estevan and Esperanza’s decision to leave behind their daughter for the lives of seventeen other teacher union members.
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.
Language is a form of communication that comes in many forms, such as verbal language, body language, and written language, that people use to express ideas to other people. The way a person utilizes language is what makes them different from their neighbor. Kingsolver has a unique voice in her novel The Bean Trees that perspicuously proclaims individuality and makes the novel identifiable as her work. She manipulates language to exude a “literary fingerprint” by creating a casual tone with a first-person narrative and acknowledgement of the reader, and by allowing cultural references to appear in her work. The novel opens with first-person, the very first sentence beginning with “I” (Kingsolver 1).
In Barbara Kingsolver’s “The Bean Trees” the main theme of the story lies within the role female characters, yet emphasis of the story is on the female characters, but the male characters have the same type of conflicts as the females throughout the story. Kingsolver’s style of writing raises problems that modern people can relate to: “In her stories Kingsolver addresses conventional relationships in contemporary situations: single mothers juggling responsibility… married couples considering parenthood… estranged lovers or families trying to bridge gaps they do not understand” (Hirabayashi). Both males and females deal with themes such as natural growth, symbiotic relationships, and importance of identity. These themes may be shown from different perspectives since each character has different values, but all conflicts will somehow be resolved.
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.
Walker, Alice. (1974). “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens.” Ways of Reading. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, pp. 694-701.
In the Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, the Wisteria vine is an underlying symbol of how Turtle , astonishingly, blossoms out of her shell. The amazement of the Wisteria flower symbolizes the wonderment regarding the trouble Turtle has gone through. Turtle’s life before Taylor received her makes Turtle remarkably distraught; additionally, Taylor thinks about “the fact [that Turtle’s] short life [was lived] with a kind of misery [Taylor] could not imagine” (Kingsolver 21). The imaginability concerning Taylor seeing Turtle extremely beat up as well as in a state of where no one should be corresponds with the magnificent Wisteria flower blooming. Both have the ability to amaze; moreover, dumbfound the reader. The Wisteria vine amazes in a positive
Although imagery and symbolism does little to help prepare an expected ending in “The Flowers” by Alice Walker, setting is the singular element that clearly reasons out an ending that correlates with the predominant theme of how innocence disappears as a result of facing a grim realism from the cruel world. Despite the joyous atmosphere of an apparently beautiful world of abundant corn and cotton, death and hatred lies on in the woods just beyond the sharecropper cabin. Myop’s flowers are laid down as she blooms into maturity in the face of her fallen kinsman, and the life of summer dies along with her innocence. Grim realism has never been so cruel to the innocent children.
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.