the bean trees sparknotes literature guide barbara kingsolver

Lou Ann, whose husband just left her, and her young son, Dwayne Ray, and Taylor and Turtle provide a sense of family for each other. an immediate bond forms between Taylor and Lou Ann when they realize that they both are from Kentucky. Looking for a place to live, taylor responds to an ad in a newspaper and rents a room from Lou Ann Ruiz. After she befriends refugees Estevan and Esperanza, Taylor becomes more aware of discrimination and social injustice. Taylor soon discovers that Mattie's shop is also a shelter for political refugees from Guatemala. The owner of the business, Mattie, a courageous and kind person, eventually hires Taylor. Because of additional car problems, they end up at a business named Jesus Is Lord Used Tires.

Taylor and Turtle travel to Tucson, Arizona. Kingsolver introduces the perils of single motherhood as Taylor accepts her newfound responsibilities and makes a commitment - although Taylor is not fully aware that she has made such a commitment - to care for another human being.

Because the child holds onto Taylor's clothing with a fiercely determined grip that reminds Taylor of a mud turtle that won't let go of what it has in its mouth, Taylor names the child Turtle. Taylor suspects that the child, who doesn't speak, has been physically and sexually abused. The woman asks Taylor to take the child and then disappears in a pickup truck. Her life changes dramatically when, sitting in her car and ready to leave the restaurant and continue driving, a Cherokee woman puts a child wrapped in a blanket on the front seat of Taylor's car. Taylor stops to have it repaired and to get something to eat at a restaurant. In the middle of Oklahoma, on land owned by the Cherokee Nation, Taylor's car breaks down. From that point on, she is known as Taylor Greer. When her car runs out of gas in Taylorville, Illinois, she decides that her new name will be Taylor. She buys a 1955 Volkswagen and embarks on a personal journey of self-discovery, leaving everything behind, including her name.

The Bean Trees begins when Taylor (whose real name is Marietta) decides that it's time to leave Pittman, Kentucky, where she lives with her mother, and make something of herself. The relationship that develops between Taylor and Lou Ann becomes a focus of the novel. Kingsolver wrote Chapters 2 and 4 in limited third person (we see the character through the author's eyes rather than through the character's), presenting information as seen and understood by Lou Ann Ruiz, a significant character in the novel. All but two chapters of the novel are written in the first person, revealing the thoughts and feelings of the feisty protagonist, Taylor Greer. Barbara Kingsolver wrote The Bean Trees in shifting points of view.

The bean trees sparknotes literature guide barbara kingsolver