- Linda Wagner-Martin notes a tendency in Kingsolver’s interviews and essays
for the writer to consider herself an outsider, a misfit. Most of the major char-
acters in The Bean Tree can be seen as outsiders or misfits in some way. While
being an outsider or a social “misfit” can be painful in ways both emotional and
physical, what perspectives do Kingsolver’s characters gain from their social
perspectives and status? What are they able to see and do that someone who
feels quite comfortable socially and economically might not? In addition to
Wagner-Martin’s work, the article by Bob J. Frye would be helpful in exploring
this question, particularly in terms of class distinctions. - Driving home from a picnic at which Taylor, Turtle, Lou Ann, Mattie, Este-
van, and Esperanza have begun to bond, the group sees a mother quail herding
her dozens of babies across a road to safety. When a doctor who has exam-
ined Turtle explains to Taylor the extent of the abuse the child had suffered
in the past (several broken bones, physical and emotional deprivation), she
looks out a window and sees a bird who has built her nest in spiny cactus and
thinks, “You just couldn’t imagine how she’d made a home there.” Many other
instances occur in the novel in which the emotions, perceptions, and insights
of the characters are analogized in a scene in nature. In other words, the natural
world often helps characters, especially Taylor, understand what they are hear-
ing. Examining this narrative strategy should prove fruitful. How effective is
it, and what are its implied messages? - Kingsolver has been criticized for making her characters mouthpieces for
certain political views (see Maureen Ryan); she has been praised, on the other
hand, for illustrating how interwoven are personal decisions and major social
and political issues. Students might research political oppression in Guate-
mala, the Sanctuary movement in the United States, or controversies sur-
rounding the adoption of native children out of their tribe in order to assess
how Kingsolver makes these real issues in her characters’ lives. See Wagner-
Martin, Gergen, and Michael. - In a 1988 New York Times Book Review essay Jack Butler started a theme that
continues in Kingsolver criticism: the idea that she has brought together the
tradition of the Southern novel with that of Southwestern and Western writ-
ing. Where and how do these two disparate traditions exist in The Bean Trees?
How successfully are they melded, and what new insights are available because
they are brought together? Himmelwright and Frye would be helpful here.
RESOURCES
Primary Work
David Gergen, “Interview with Barbara Kingsolver,” 24 November 1995 <www.
pbs.org/newshour/gergen/kingsolver.html> [accessed 24 November 2009].
Discusses Kingsolver’s decision to live in Spain for a while during the Persian
Gulf War. She describes the United States as struggling to balance its cultural
idealization of the individual with the need for strong communities.