The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
**Overview of "The Bean Trees" by Barbara Kingsolver**
"The Bean Trees" is the debut novel by Barbara Kingsolver, centering on the journey of twenty-three-year-old Marietta (Taylor) Greer as she travels west from Kentucky to Tucson, Arizona. The narrative unfolds as an initiation story, exploring themes of identity, motherhood, and the bonds formed in unexpected circumstances. After acquiring a three-year-old girl named Turtle from a frightened Cherokee woman, Taylor embarks on a transformative journey toward adulthood. Along the way, she forms a heartfelt friendship with Lou Ann Ruiz, a fellow Kentuckian and single mother, highlighting contrasting representations of motherhood through their experiences. As Taylor navigates her fears—particularly about parenting and personal safety—she works at a used tire shop that also serves as a refuge for Central American immigrants. The novel intricately weaves together motifs of naming and identity, illustrating how the characters' names symbolize their histories and choices. Notably, Taylor's decision to name Turtle reflects both her strength and the vulnerabilities they share. Ultimately, "The Bean Trees" delves into the complexities of family, friendship, and the resilience required to create a sense of home in a world filled with challenges.
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Subject Terms
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
First published: 1988
The Work
The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver’s first novel, is the initiation story of twenty-three-year-old Marietta (Taylor) Greer, who drives west from Kentucky, finding a new name and a child and ultimately making a life in Tucson, Arizona. In a plot structured on the hero’s journey of separation, initiation, and reintegration, Taylor Greer achieves her adult identity by accepting and making a home for the three-year-old child, Turtle, who was given to her by a frightened Cherokee woman.
Taylor answers a newspaper ad for a housemate and meets Lou Ann Ruiz. Lou Ann and Taylor are both from Kentucky, and their similar accents and diction spark a friendship. Lou Ann—a single parent whose husband has abandoned her and their infant son, Dwayne Ray—and Taylor portray fearful and confident motherhood. Lou Ann represents fearful motherhood and self-conscious, self-critical femininity. She sees the world as fraught with sharp objects threatening her infant and small round objects that could block his windpipe. She also bewails her bad appearance: “I look like I’ve been drug through hell backwards.” The truth of Lou Ann’s portrait is borne out in Kingsolver’s recollection of a hometown book signing where “more than one of my old schoolmates had sidled up and whispered: That Lou Ann character, the insecure one? I know you based her on me.’” Taylor realizes she and Lou Ann “were like some family on a TV commercial, with names like Myrtle and Fred,” stereotypes of husband and wife. The two talk through their situation over beer, tortilla chips, pimento-cheese slices, and sardines in mustard, sharing secrets, becoming friends, and eventually working out a schedule to share housework.
Taylor finds work at Jesus Is Lord Used Tires, a business with an upstairs apartment that also serves as a sanctuary for Central American refugees. Despite its incongruous name, the tire store is a place where Taylor faces her fear: She has a strong childhood memory of seeing an exploding tractor tire throw a man high into the air. All the characters in this novel face fears, as represented most dramatically by Turtle and the refugee couple Esperanza and Estevan. Taylor volunteers to drive the couple to another hiding place in Oklahoma, and seek legal adoption of Turtle. The couple helps Taylor by pretending to be Turtle’s biological parents, signing adoption papers in a lawyer’s office.
Naming is a significant motif in the novel. Taylor’s given name, Marietta, is the name of the Georgia town in which she was born. When Taylor drives away from Pittman County Kentucky, she decides that her name will be determined by wherever her car runs out of gas: “I kept my fingers crossed through Sidney, Sadorus, Cerro Gordo, Decatur, and Blue Mound, and coasted into Taylorville on the fumes.” Taylor names Turtle to match the strength of her grip: Turtle holds on like a snapping turtle. The naming process combines choice and circumstance, power and powerlessness in an apt reflection of Kingsolver’s themes.
Bibliography
Butler, Jack. “She Hung the Moon and Plugged in All the Stars.” The New York Times Book Review, April 10, 1988, 15. A good essay that praises Kingsolver’s style, pointing out her success in both dialogue and description. Butler also notes that language is one of the subthemes of the novel, linking Lou Ann and Taylor through their Kentucky dialect, Estevan through his work as an English teacher, and Turtle as a child learning to speak. Butler points out, however, that the novel seems to lose “immediacy” near its end, with the characters becoming almost too good and the plot perhaps overly contrived.
FitzGerald, Karen. “A Major New Talent.” Ms. 17 (April, 1988): 28. In this appreciative review, FitzGerald puts Kingsolver in the context of contemporary feminists writing about friendship. In Kingsolver’s fiction, however, as opposed to the nonfiction of other feminists, a reader comes to feel the power of women’s relationships and their ability to provide a haven in which the women can blossom.
Freitag, Michael. “Writing to Pay the Rent.” The New York Times Book Review, April 10, 1988, 15.
Lyall, Sarah. “Termites Are Interesting but Books Sell Better.” The New York Times, September 1, 1993, C1. A lengthy, informal profile of Kingsolver.
Mossman, Robert. Review of The Bean Trees. English Journal 79 (October, 1990): 85.
Perry, Donna. Backtalk: Women Writers Speak Out. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1993.
Randall, Margaret. “Human Comedy.” Women’s Review of Books 5 (May, 1988): 1. Randall’s review of The Bean Trees offers great praise for the novel. She frames the discussion of her review around the issue of invasion: both in terms of Turtle’s sexual abuse (the invasion of a child’s body) and the invasion of Central America by United States forces.
Schwarzbaum, Lisa. “Bound for (More) Glory.” Entertainment Weekly (May 1, 1998): 58. A highly favorable tenth anniversary review that praises Kingsolver’s novel for its memorable characters and recommends it be taught in high schools.
See, Lisa. “Barbara Kingsolver.” Publishers Weekly 237 (August 31, 1990): 46-47. See conducted interviews with Barbara Kingsolver, and this article provides very useful background and biographical information. She also covers some of Kingsolver’s other work, including Holding the Line (1989), Homeland and Other Stories (1989), and Animal Dreams (1990).