Violence In The Bean Trees

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Over the years, millions of individuals have endangered their lives in order to reach the land of opportunities. In an attempt to rebuild their lives, these individuals are willing to take risks, despite the possibility of being let down. In The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, two characters share their experiences as immigrants. In an effort to escape violence from their hometown, immigrants try to secure a better future for themselves, but are often let down by the prejudice they encounter.
Many immigrants are threatened with violence, so they leave in order to procure new possibilities in the United States. In The Bean Trees, Esperanza and Estevan have a similar experience to many other immigrants escaping from violence. The two of them …show more content…

Esperanza and Estevan, two immigrants from Guatemala, must be careful, and take many precautions in an effort to avoid alerting authorities and getting deported. Mattie, a friend, says, “They’d be deported before you even had time to sit down and think about it...In that case Estevan’s and Esperanza’s lives wouldn't be worth a plugged nickel” (Kingsolver 214). Esperanza and Estevan have the label of “immigrant” attached to themselves, and because they are in the United States illegally, if they aren't careful, they could be discovered, and deported. If they are discovered, the police wouldn’t care about the lives they built, and it would not be worth a “plugged nickel” to them. And in addition, there are many citizens that have a negative view of immigrants. A survey is conducted, asking people's’ opinions on immigration. It is discovered that 47 percent of the silent generation (people born between 1928 and 1945), want to have a wall built along the entire border with Mexico. That is almost half of the silent generation wanting to secure our borders with a wall. The desire for a more secure way of keeping immigrants out helps to display the negative assumptions of immigration. And the unwant of immigrants in the country. Even though older individuals barely change their minds regarding immigration, millennials are much more likely to be open minded and embrace newcomers into our

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