The Theme Of Racism Exposed In Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees

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Woman authors were not very popular and well-known in the 20th century, compared to men. As usual in the gender hierarchy, men were the most prominent and readers favored books written by men over books written by women. This is interesting because women are just as capable of writing brilliant literature as men are, and that is why I wanted to focus on women writers of the 20th century for my I-Search. One example is the book, The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, a fictional story written about a teenager moving out and blossoming by overcoming obstacles and making new friends to help her when she suddenly gets stuck with a baby Cherokee child. One interesting component that she added to the story multiple times were culturally relevant debates. …show more content…

In the beginning of the novel, Kingsolver boldly brings up this topic and keeps hinting at it throughout the novel, for example later going through borders and dressing up her Latino friends in ‘white clothing’ to get past the border with no problems. But in the beginning of the book she brings this topic up first by having one of the mothers not wanting her daughter to date a Mexican, “She hadn't wanted Lou Ann to marry Angel in the first place, but for the wrong reasons. She disliked him because he was Mexican, which didn't make a difference to Lou Ann. In Tucson, she tried to explain to her mother, there were so many Mexicans that people didn't even think of them as a foreign race. They were doctors, bank clerks, TV personalities, and even owned hotels” (Kingsolver 31). This is a quote that really lets the actual author’s opinions leak through. You can tell that she expresses her disagreement in racism because her characters are using evidence and trying very hard to persuade the mother that all people are the same no matter their race. This topic makes the book more culturally relevant and helps to fight the societal norms of the …show more content…

For example, this quote about laying down in a silent room uses personal experiences to connect a reader to a character, In her other ear, pressed against the pillow, “she could hear the blood pumping all the way down to her feet. It sounded like something like the ocean, which she had seen with Angel in Mexico” (Kingsolver 38). Everyone that has been to the ocean or any large body of water can relate to this calming water sound because they have experienced it before. Again with her magical author skills, Kingsolver combines three different literary devices again while describing soap. She adds a humorous detail about soap dipping, which just gets your mind going and imaging the scene is you are reading it happen, “Mattie rubbed Ivory soap on the reads and then dunked them in like big doughnuts. Little threads of bubbles steamed up like strings of glass beads. Lots of them. It looked like a whole jewelry store in there” (Kingsolver 45). She manages to create another metaphor that has imagery, a simile intertwined within. This once again proves her writing skills as a successful author of the 20th

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