658 Kingsolver, Barbara
tire shop and a shelter for illegal immigrants. Mattie
becomes a mother figure for Taylor and Turtle, com-
bining an earth-mother image with a strong sense of
social activism. In spite of her fear of exploding tires,
Taylor works for Mattie as an apprentice mechanic
to support Turtle and herself, once again working in
a job that would traditionally be reserved for men.
Taylor also shares a house with Lou Ann Ruiz,
another single mother who has been abandoned
by her husband. These two women create a family
where the only male is Lou Ann’s infant son. Taylor
adopts the male role in this functional unit by work-
ing outside the home while Lou Ann takes care of
domestic matters. As the novel progresses, though,
Lou Ann becomes increasingly aware of her female
strength by recalling her pregnancy and by being
outraged at the doorknob in a strip joint represent-
ing a female body part which has to be pushed in to
make it work: “like a woman is something you shove
on and walk right through.” Lou Ann eventually
finds a job in a salsa factory as a line worker and is
later promoted to manager. When her husband asks
her to move and live with him in a yurt, she refuses
to give up her newly found independence. Although
Lou Ann dates other men, she is not interested in
living with them and by the end of the novel she and
Taylor have solidified their matriarchal family unit
with Taylor’s legal adoption of Turtle.
There are very few men given prominent men-
tion in the novel. Most, like Turtle’s unnamed
attackers, are portrayed as violent predators. Angel
Ruiz, Lou Ann’s husband, is a selfish, lazy drunkard,
so much so that even his own mother doesn’t like
him. The men Taylor meets during her trip west
patronize her by criticizing her outspoken manner
and try to scare her in an attempt to redress the
gender balance. “I never could figure out why men
thought they could impress a woman by making
the world out to be such a big dangerous deal” says
Taylor, logically pointing out that “we’ve got to live
in the exact same world every damn day of the week,
don’t we?”
Estevan, Esperanza’s husband, is the only man
portrayed sympathetically. He is ironically lauded
for his non-masculine qualities, such as sensibility
and a willingness to express his love for his wife.
Taylor becomes attracted to him precisely because
he doesn’t exhibit any of the stereotypical male
attributes she has come across. Unlike Angel Ruiz,
Estevan prioritizes family, friendship, and loyalty.
His career itself is teaching English as a second
language, which places him as a service provider,
one who can be both empathetic and patient. Este-
van also shatters myths about illegal immigrants by
demonstrating through his flawless English that he
is industrious, willing to embrace a foreign language,
and to integrate himself within the community.
Illegal immigrants, American Indians, and the
women in the novel are marginalized members of
the society they inhabit. Taylor takes pride in her
Cherokee blood and derives strength from this
tribe’s history of physical endurance and cultural
survival. The novel highlights the strong association
between the Native Americans’ tradition of nur-
turing and protecting nature and women’s roles as
homemakers and caregivers. Taylor and Lou Ann
Ruiz survive and succeed by creating strong bonds
with their children and other women, and by nur-
turing themselves and those around them, instill-
ing in them a love and respect of nature and all its
creatures.
Lourdes Arcinieganature in The Bean Trees
In The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver depicts
nature as an omnipresent character symbolizing the
emotional turmoil faced by the main female pro-
tagonists. On the one hand, Mother Nature cradles
and nurtures Turtle, Taylor, Estevan, Esperanza, and
Lou Ann, giving each of them hope through her
neverending cycle of rebirth, and yet this cycle also
entails facing death. The women in the novel have
a fierce, protective love for their children, greater
even than their love of men. These women as single
parents or single females have symbiotic relation-
ships representative of nature’s interdependence.
The blind Edna depends on Virgie Mae to be her
eyes and she in turn counteracts Virgie Mae’s abra-
sive manner. Lou Ann helps Taylor embrace her
natural abilities while Taylor instills self-confidence
in Lou Ann.
When Mattie Greer renames herself Taylor, at
the beginning of the novel, she experiences a rebirth
as she takes command of her identity and the way