2 Contemporary Literature, 1970 to Present
That Has No Name, abuse of the powerless, racism, poetry, freedom, childhood,
motherhood, Sisterhood is Powerful. All that.”
In addition to the works cited below that focus on The Bean Trees, students
would be well served by consulting general studies of Kingsolver’s works. Mary
Jean DeMarr’s Barbara Kingsolver: A Critical Companion (Westport, Conn.:
Greenwood Press, 1999) is a reliable introduction to the author’s works, as is
Mary Ellen Snodgrass’s Barbara Kingsolver: A Literary Companion ( Jefferson,
N.C.: McFarland, 2004), which places Kingsolver’s fiction in a social context.
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION AND RESEARCH
- The Bean Trees presents several examples of women in the process of mother-
ing and learning to mother, most of them in nontraditional situations. Taylor
becomes a mother accidentally, having an abused Cherokee child thrust into
her car and into her arms when she stops for a meal in Oklahoma—ironically,
in the process of fleeing what she sees as the only future for young women
in her rural Kentucky hometown: pregnancy. Although she bonds with the
child she dubs Turtle and begins to bring her out of her shell, Taylor herself
withdraws when Turtle is threatened by a possible molester in the park and
must renegotiate what being a mother means to her. Lou Ann has a baby
boy, separates from her husband, is visited by her own cantankerous mother
and grandmother, and worries incessantly over dangers to her child. Slowly,
through taking a job—something many conservative views see as inappropri-
ate for a woman with a small child—Lou Ann develops a stronger sense of
self-esteem. Mattie, an older woman who provides sanctuary for Guatemalan
political refugees, might be considered in this line of thought for the ways in
which she offers nurturing, protection, and education to not only the refugees
staying with her but also to Taylor, who goes to work in Mattie’s Jesus-is-Lord
Used Tires business. Thus, students would find it fruitful to explore ideas of
motherhood and mothering in The Bean Trees. What does Kingsolver depict as
positive and as negative about these various nontraditional versions of mother-
hood? By extension, what does Kingsolver have to say about gender and com-
munity in this novel? - In leaving her small hometown and heading west, Taylor Greer seems to be
falling into a long tradition of American individualism. Yet, unlike most liter-
ary travelers west, Taylor acquires a child along the way and continues amass-
ing friends once she settles in Tucson. In what ways does Kingsolver rewrite
the traditional American saga of heading west? This might be considered in
terms of different oppositions: How do opportunities, desires, and approaches
change according to whether the protagonist is male or female, rich or poor,
white or a person of color? How are the tensions between individual desires
and community needs played out? Students might find Kingsolver’s interview
with David Gergen a useful springboard for examining such issues in The Bean
Trees; the articles by Catherine Himmelwright, Magali Cornier Michael, and
Loretta Martin Murrey should also prove helpful.