When people are asked to imagine the struggles of day to day lives, they predominantly think about not having enough gasoline for their cars or embarrassing oneself in front of others. What is often over looked is the harassment and hypersexualization of women all over the world, twenty-four seven, seven days a week. Barbara Kingsolver in her work of fiction, The Bean Trees, has given readers all over the world an insight of few realistic women’s struggles in the revolutionized world. The book follows main character Taylor Greer as she deals with having an unknown baby handed to her through starting over her life. She learns the real world through an unshielded window. Problems from finding childcare to dealing with legal problems. Kingsolver’s …show more content…
In particular, Taylor found Mattie running an automotive shop (Jesus is Lord Used Tires) which gave her an example to stand up for equality. “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, 44). From this intendent Taylor realizes a woman can do more than cook and cleaning work. The diction Kingsolver uses is of plain informing text. There is no biasness from the way Tylor was explaining Mattie’s work. Here, Taylor realizes how much it is important to know all basic skills that aren’t just feminine. This directly proves a lot of women don’t have people like Mattie as a role model; this is why the world needs feminism. It helps women be strong independent women. With this thought in mind, later on in the book Taylor takes up a job there. At this point of the book Jesus is Lord Used Tires is the place Taylor now works at: the same shop Mattie runs. “But there is no steering Mattie off her course. She was positive I’d be a natural at tires... In many ways it was the perfect arrangement” (Kingsolver, 78). Taylor takes up the job because she will gain …show more content…
It is the equality of all genders. This is shown in the first chapter when Taylor found Turtle sexually abused. “When I pulled off the pants and the diapers there were more bruises. Bruises and worse. The Indian child was a girl… I thought I knew about every ugly thing that one person does to another, but I never even thought about such things being done to a baby girl” (Kingsolver, 23). This quote is a major turning point in the book. Some speculate if Taylor had never seen the bruises and the signs of abuse, she might have taken the kid to the police. Seeing the child in such despair, Kingsolver uses tone to send her message. Abuse of any kind is not ethically correct and should be stopped. The author wrote this part of the book in a hazy kind of way making it seem Taylor doesn’t believe it. What is even more shocking being the number of women to this day that gets abused. "This ‘one in five’ statistic shouldn’t just be taken with a grain of salt but the entire shaker," said James Fox, professor of criminology, law and public policy at Northeastern University (Washington Post, 2014) The ‘one in five’ statistic he is speaking about is one in five women get sexually harassed in college (Obama, 2014). This small quote speaks humongous words. As it says in the quote, “one in five,” women get sexually harassed in college and that shows that women aren’t looked at as strong and agile people because
She looked at her peers and saw how they will become exactly like their parents or worse before they even had a chance to realize or think about planning out their future. A clear example of this is Newt Hardbine. He was not able to continue in high school, but, instead had to work in the tobacco fields alongside his father. Newt then married a girl from the town, simply because the girl, Jolene had the opinion of “why the hell not” instilled in her by her father who shamed her for being a slut. Taylor knew from a young age, that this life was not for her.
Taylor was now finding out about how the life of her friends was in danger she knew that this could harm them but she also realized that she couldn’t change much because she was all by herself, this motivated her to do as much as she could for those she
The resiliency of Taylor 's mother and her commitment to Taylor, as well as her indifferent attitude toward men, represent Kingsolver 's feminist
At first, all Taylor wants in life is to drive away from home and avoid pregnancy. As soon as Taylor gets a car, she leaves everything
Seixm is the discrimination against someone based on their sex; this discrimination is usually directed toward females. Barbara Kingsolver uses her novel to spread social awareness. Not only does she speak heavily on sexism, but she speaks on Central American immigration and includes Native American characters. Kingsolver shows how hard it is to be a female in a male dominated world, as well as how hard it is to be in a minority group. In Barbara Kingsolver’s
Sit Still, Look Pretty Sitting on the front porch of a house isn’t exactly how women should spend every day of their lives. The modern woman has a busy life, working every day, as well as participating in outside activities such as clubs, sports, or meetings. Women in the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, play a very different role by doing almost nothing except providing at the service of their loved ones. The main character, Janie Crawford does this everyday of her life for twenty years while she is married.
Taylor is making closer and closer connections with the people around her as she tries to make Turtle open up to her once again after she was molested. Taylor was trying so hard to make everything perfect for her, but in reality “[a]ll you can promise is that you’ll take care of [her] the best you can...and just hope for the best” (226). All this time Taylor has tried to show Turtle that she can protect her from the world. Throughout the traumatic experiences they both went through, this eventually brought Taylor and Turtle closer than ever before. It got to the point where she would do anything for her, even when it came to the government's attention that “[she] had no legal claim to Turtle” (233).
Throughout the course of the book, Janie experiences oppression as a woman, revealing the hidden gender roles in American society that help form the American
In the novel The Bean Trees by Barbara KIngsolver the symbol/motif of motherhood and why it's unrealistic to expect perfection from mothers is commonly explored with Taylor, Lou Ann and Esperanza, none of who fit the stereotypical vision of a mother. Taylor, who avoided pregnancy her entire life becomes the mother of an indian girl, Lou Ann's husbands abandons her before their child is even born, and Esperanza is forced to leave her child to save the lives of others. Each of them love their children greatly and are willing to put their children before themselves and their outside relationships; Taylor holds back her relationship with Estevan because she sees herself in Esperanza as a mother. Esperanza does not blame Taylor when turtle
Women , now as much as ever, struggle with gender roles and expectations in society. For example, many would be surprised to learn that a woman who does the same job as a man makes 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. Barbara Kingsolver exemplifies this idea in her novel The Bean Trees, a story about a young woman who struggles to survive as she travels across the country from Pittman County to Tucson, OK, illegally adopting a baby along the way. Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees argues that American societies’ gender roles influence the treatment of women as well as shapes their character and personality, pressuring women across America to conform to the propagandized stereotypes. The Bean Trees, specifically regarding Lou Ann, expresses
One of the significant proceedings that occurred in the book was when Turtle was abused, again. The climax was where readers established an understanding toward the second incident, “All these months we had spent together were gone for her. I knew it from her eyes: two cups of black coffee…” (Kingsolver 222). This part of the plot was the most outrageous part because this time Turtle was hurt but the difference was that no one knew if she will ever go back to her happy self, not to mention it effected Taylor’s behavior toward everything.
In the nineteenth century, woman had no power over men in society. They were limited in their freedom, as their lives were controlled by their husbands. Some women did not mind this lifestyle, and remained obedient, while some rebelled and demanded their rights. “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, are short stories that exposes the lifestyle women lived in the nineteenth century. The protagonists from both stories, Jane and Georgiana, similarly lived a male dominated lifestyle.
Over the years, immigrants have influenced many aspects of American society and has had a vital role in shaping the United States to what it is today. According to the US Census Bureau, an agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System responsible for producing data about the American people and economy, “non-Hispanic white population in the U.S. declined from 85 percent in 1965 to 62.2 percent in 2014, and the forecast is for the percentage of non-Hispanic whites to fall to 43.6 percent in 2060” (qtd. in Walsh). Despite the rise of immigrants and the profound impact they have had on society, many immigrants face perpetual discrimination; this idea has appeared many times throughout Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Bean Trees. Taking place during the 1970s, the main character, Taylor, moves from Kentucky to Arizona; along the way, she meets Esperanza and Estevan, illegal immigrants from Guatemala. As she gets to know them better, she notices they are forced to live a monotonous, arduous life which implies that immigrants face prejudice from Americans who claim to be accepting.
Within the novel “The Bean Trees”, written by Barbara Kingsolver. Within the book, abuse is taken into different terms. Abuse is not only physical, but it can also be categorized as sexual, mental, verbal, psychological, financial, elder, and spiritual abuse. The only four types of abuse that were introduced into the book was sexual, physical, verbal, and The first type of abuse is child abuse.
Faulkner describes black people by a derogatory term “negro” to emphasize the main issue of the southern mentality. However, author pays the equal attention to gender inequality. Starting from the very beginning Faulkner describes Emily’s unquestionable obedience towards the constraints that her father put on her life. Emily is the symbol of old American south, yet her character has a lot in common with women of younger generation “Only a man of Colonel Satoris’s generation could have invented it and only a women could have believed it” (Faulkner), it is not women’s competence to think by themselves; the statement that Faulkner wants make in this part is that men are superior gender.