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…
It is fascinating how she wrote about real problems in a fictional world. These additions were very effective because they were still important today and made us stop and think for a minute. Throughout this story, Kingsolver frequently incorporates literary devices very smoothly and she also writes to make sure they have an actual impact for the story and towards the reader. The beginning of the novel encompasses many metaphors and touches on some of those real life topics. One metaphor that helps the readers look inward to the main character’s mind is related to her old home back in the country, “In my mind's eye I could see myself in my lead apron standing over Jolene, and this is exactly what I looked like: a butcher holding down a calf on its way to becoming a cut of meat” (Kingsolver 9). This detailed metaphor has a very country vibe which expresses her extreme love for her home, which foreshadows homesickness in the future. While foreshadowing, it still helps the readers to understand her unique thought processes. Another metaphor slipped in for similar reasons then the last is about a traumatizing scene that makes a big part of the story, “She couldn't know that all I was seeing behind those shut eyes was Newt Hardbine's daddy flying up into the air, in slow motion, like a fish flinging sideways out of the water. And Newt laid out like a hooked bass” (Kingsolver 12). This quote is actually many literary devices in one. Writing this metaphor with the motions of fish actually creates a distinct picture in the mind, which also serves as imagery. But even more is its irony. This traumatizing scene is also ironic because later she overcomes her fear and works in an automotive shop changing tires. Kingsolver is sly by slipping in one quick metaphor, but she does a good job because she also has the addition of imagery and irony with that one sentence. This proves that women writers can do amazing things and can stand up right beside men. Kingsolver also discreetly proves herself by using her art to incorporate serious problems that are still valid today. One big conflict that is and forever will be fought about is racism.
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…
book. I found that the middle of the book had more distinguishable imagery quotes.
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
century. Another debated topic she brings up is, ironically, men superiority. Even today, people are still fighting about priority heavily in salaries. But she goes over this realistic topic in her fictious story, “I had never seen a woman with this kind of know-how. It made me feel proud, somehow. In Pittman if a woman had tried to have her own tire store she would have been run out of business” (Kingsolver 49). The author clearly pushes for successful womanly figures, which is ironic because she is one. She wants woman to be proud and credited of their hard-work, a common opinion among many people today. Towards the end of the book is where the author got more humorous and sassy. Humorous books are very fun to read and she does a great job by using sarcasm to make the story more funny. This quote is a great example of sarcasm if the reader understands, “I began to suspect that sharing harmonious space with an insightful Virgo might require even greater credentials than being a licensed phlebotomist in the state of Arizona” (Kingsolver 77). As a reader, this quote just makes you stop and giggle quickly, which is actually quite refreshing. The extra humor in this part of the book makes it less serious, which could be the point because to contrast there was actually some dark and deep topics also talked about. She also gets very dark in this next quote proving the contrast, “Sadness is more or less like a head cold - with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer” (Kingsolver 194). This connects two alike things, sadness and depression, and two other alike things, head colds and cancer. These comparisons exaggerate the intensity of the feelings and emotions you encounter enduring these life challenges. Then there is another humorous comment to lighten up the mood, “I really couldn't tell how old these people were. I kept expecting a parent to show up in another doorway, and tell Beach Blanket Bingo to put on his shirt, but then, they could have been older than me” (Kingsolver 77). This witty nickname plus the unknowing ages makes for a little giggle to brighten this part of the book. This is why she is a good writer, she is able to shift from serious deep topics, but add humorous sassy quotes to not make it too overwhelming for her audience. Barbara Kingsolver is a very talented and unique writer. Although she is female and they were not popular authors in the 20th century she proves herself multiple times. She uses combinations of literary devices and incorporates real life topics into a ‘fake’ story. Kingsolver successfully wrote The Bean Trees by using her writing skills to connect readers to the characters in her novel. Works Cited Kingsolver, Barbara. The Bean Trees. Harper & Row, 1988.
Davidson, Cathy N. and Linda Wagner-Martin. The Oxford Companion to Womenâs Writing In The United States. New York: Oxford United Press, 1995.
Motherhood in The Bean Trees & nbsp; In the novel, The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, we watch Taylor grow a great deal. This young woman takes on a huge commitment to 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. & nbsp; Marietta was raised in a small town in Kentucky. When she became an adult, she decided she needed a change.
Many aspects of life are explored in Barbara Kingsolver's novel, The Bean Trees. A young woman named Marietta Greer from Kentucky wanted to strike out on her own, leaving behind everything she ever knew, just to start a new life. Many children want to do this at an early age so they can experience life on their own yet they don't realize the dangers involved.. Everyone that leaves the solace of their own home needs loving support to keep them going through life.
Running Head: THE BEAN TREES. Abstract This book report deals with the Native American culture and how a girl named Taylor got away from what was expected of her as part of her rural town in Pittman, Kentucky. She struggles along the way with her old beat up car and gets as far west as she can. Along the way, she takes care of an abandoned child which she found in the backseat of her car and decides to take care of her.
The public when the women first came out writing stories they had no clue what to think about their writings. It wasn’t like the traditional men writing where it kept the reader on the edge of their seats and being entertained. The women wrote more of a darker kind of story to where some people would call it a horror story, it was the first time that women had a voice. Women often talked about one thing and it was freedom, they always feel like they have been trapped. Also men wanted to inform and they had a lot of humor in their stories, where the women did not. Female authors had a much darker, melancholy storyline to their writing, while male authors wrote primarily to entertain their readers.
Zora Neale Hurston and Maya Angelou are arguably the most influential writers of the mid 20th century . Their work has inspired young African Americans to have more confidence in their own abilities. Their work has also been studied and taught countless times in many schools across the U.S. But the main reason why their work is considered classics in American literature; is because their work stands as testament to the treatment, and struggles of African Americans in the mid 20th century America.
Literature from the 1820âs to the 1860âs brought attention to the expanse of the American experience and gave rise to many unique voices. Some of the best writers of this era challenged their fellow citizens to live up to the ideals that the founding fathers had written into America's sacred documents. The voices that cast these challenges are as varied and wide spread in their approach as this nation's natural boundaries are diverse. Fanny Fern (1811-1872), was one of the writers who made a big splash with her fearless unconventionality during this literary renaissance. Her masterful use of satire and her belief that the ideal of individualism should include women, gained her enormous popularity and doomed her chances of being included in the American literary canon for over a century.
Racial discrimination is the one thing that is in the novel the most. For example, when the Spaniards first came to Tenochtitlan, the first thing that was taken from the Aztecs was their religion. This would include their customs, traditions, sacrifices, ceremonies, and belief of their gods. Every Aztec was then baptized as a Christian and were then given a Christian name. “Have I upset you?” “Yes!” “It’s my obligation to know these things about you.” “What things?” “That you have a Christian name.” “You mean you have to make sure that I have been robbed of everything, even my name” (62). Here Huitzitzilin tells Father Benito that since everything was take away from her, there is nothing left from her past she shows her Aztec roots. This shows how the Spanish thought that they had more power over others because of their race. In my opinion, everyone is the same, everyone deserves equality. No one should be given a title because of his or her race, ethnicity, culture, or
Fisher, Jerilyn, and Ellen S. Silber. Women in Literature: Reading Through the Lens of Gender. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2003. Print.
In comparing the three authors and the literary works of women authors Kate Chopin (1850 -1904), The Awakening, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's (1860-1935), The Yellow Wallpaper, and Edith Wharton's (1862-1937) Souls Belated, a good number common social issues related to women are brought to light and though subtly pointed out are an outcry against the conventions of the time. In these three stories, which were written between 1899 and 1913, the era was a time in which it seems, that women had finally awaken to realize their social oppression and were becoming rebellious in their pursuit of freedom from the male-dominated societal convention in which they existed. They commenced viewing their social stature as unjustly inferior and realized that these conventions placed deterrents on their intellectual and personal growth, and on their freedom to function as an independent person. All three of these women authors have by their literary works, have voiced their strong unfavorable feelings about the patriarchal society in which they lived.
Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979. Print.
Women have a different way of viewing the world, because of the culture not the nature. They tend to write diaries, autobiographies, poetry…because the cultural context in which they write asks for that kind of literature .
...ntury readers. "The Story of An Hour", "The Storm", and The Awakening, all held themes that were controversial in a male dominated society. Critics criticized her literary works based not on prejudice and shock, not on the quality of the writing.
Feminism as we know it began in the mid 1960's as the Women's Liberation Movement. Among its chief tenants is the idea of women's empowerment, the idea that women are capable of doing and should be allowed to do anything men can do. Feminists believe that neither sex is naturally superior. They stand behind the idea that women are inherently just as strong and intelligent as the so-called stronger sex. Many writers have taken up the cause of feminism in their work. One of the most well known writers to deal with feminist themes is Margaret Atwood. Her work is clearly influenced by the movement and many literary critics, as well as Atwood herself, have identified her as a feminist writer. However, one of Atwood's most successful books, The Handmaid's Tale, stands in stark contrast to the ideas of feminism. In fact, the female characters in the novel are portrayed in such a way that they directly conflict with the idea of women's empowerment.
Many female writers see themselves as advocates for other creative females to help find their voice as a woman. Although this may be true, writer Virginia Woolf made her life mission to help women find their voice as a writer, no gender attached. She believed women had the creativity and power to write, not better than men, but as equals. Yet throughout history, women have been neglected in a sense, and Woolf attempted to find them. In her essay, A Room of One’s Own, she focuses on what is meant by connecting the terms, women and fiction. Woolf divided this thought into three categories: what women are like throughout history, women and the fiction they write, and women and the fiction written about them. When one thinks of women and fiction, what they think of; Woolf tried to answer this question through the discovery of the female within literature in her writing.