The Bean Trees

The vast and wide distances to be known throughout the great plains is where Taylor's life-long journey is played out. There is room for mistakes and there is room for many successes, hopes, and dreams; but the end result for all of this put together is the discovery of who she truly is as a person. The fact that Taylor changed her name proves that she desperately wanted a new beginning, a new life, and more importantly, a new journey. Sure, through time you may change the way you think and act upon consequences mentally, but emotionally you stay the same.

Hurtful and life-changing experiences stay with you whether you have decided to become a "new person" or not. Issues thrust upon yourself may slowly passover, but the consequences you've endured are of those memories that do not pass over time, but stick with you until the end. Taylor was always seen as a girl with many intensions, and constantly had a mind that was full of determination. She didn't exactly know what was to come ahead of her, but thought of life as a journey of willingness. She did not have an exact plan in mind when it came to thinking of her future, but she was always moving foward in the right direction as though it seemed. That is, until Turtle came into the picture.

The usage of food throughout this novel seems to be thought very simply at the beginning, but as the significance of it is slowly portrayed, a message is roughly perceived to the reader. Food is relevant to escapism and has been used to mend themselves during times of difficulty, or misjudgements. An argument between Taylor and Lou Ann was quickly calmed as chips were brought out and in doing so, creating the angst to be thought upon them switch to laughter. What I feel Kingsolver is trying to let the reader acknowledge is that the simple idea of food can impact a situation greatly, with the outcome much of the time of good happenings. That is, if the food is knowingly thought of to be good in taste.


In my perspective, Taylor was not fully ready to be a guardian of Turtle. She was unaware of the innocense that was still inside her--she was still carrying the independance that had been with her for so long. Turtle coming into her life would bring out a side of her which no one thought to be there. Turtle coming into her life would greatly change who Taylor was as a person, and give her the opportunity to mature and possibly change her mind of what she would like to achieve as her life persists, to profoundly seek a new path.