Bean_Trees

The Bean Trees-Subjective or Objective' Goals provide a sense of clarity for the future. However, certain things occur that change these goals and the path being followed. This scenario happened to Taylor Greer, a girl hoping to move on when a totally unexpected twist changes her whole future. The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, tells the story of Taylor Greer, a young woman just trying to graduate from high school without a child and live a decent life. Taylor grew up poor in a rural part of Kentucky called Pitman County. Here, most girls became pregnant before their seventeenth birthday and didn’t make it much farther then marrying a young tobacco farmer. Taylor hoped to aspire to more. After working a job at Pittman County Hospital for five years, she bought herself a car and hit the road, leaving behind all she had ever known. “In my first few years at Pittman County Hospital, I was able to help Mama out with the rent and the bills and still managed to save up a couple of hundred of dollars. With most of it I bought a car, a ’55 Volkswagen bug…The day I brought it home, she [Mama] knew I was going to get away.” (Page 11) On her drive west, through a strange series of events, Taylor “inherits” a three-year old American Indian girl whom she names Turtle. “She opened up the blanket and took out something alive. It was a child. She wrapped her blanket around and around it until it became a round bundle with a head. Then she set this bundle down on the seat of my car. ‘Take this baby,’ she said.” (Page 18) This bizarre surprise changes Taylor’s whole goal and outlook on life. The book follows Taylor and Turtle as they develop an inseparable bond and journey to Tucson, Arizona. Here they meet the people they come to call family and face the unexpected difficulties of life surrounding the “human condition.” In Tucson, Taylor and Turtle stumble across an old tire shop, appropriately called “Jesus is Lord Used Tires” because it doubles as a sanctuary for Central American refugees. A loving, old woman named Mattie operates the shop and takes Taylor and Turtle under her wing until they settle in Tucson. Mattie looks after all the Central American refugees and cares for them. Many of these immigrants live in the United States illegally; yet, they are kind, loving people just trying to escape harm in their native countries. One couple in particular plays a main role in the book and shapes a large portion of the story. “Esperanza and Estevan were their names. It led you to expect twins, not a young married couple, and really there was something twinnish about them. They were both small and dark, with the same high-set, watching eyes and strong-boned faces I’d admired in the bars and gas stations and postcards of the Cherokee Nation. Mattie had told me that more than half the people in Guatemala were Indians.” (Page 97) Esperanza and Estevan develop a close friendship with Taylor as they flee from the tortures in their native Guatemala. These two influential characters act as symbols of the author’s bias throughout the book. The reader gains a clear idea of the author’s opinion by the subjectivity used when describing the issue of illegal immigrants. Although, the author states several objective facts, these facts were chosen to make one feel sympathetic towards the immigrants. The people she chooses to describe, such as Estevan and Esperanza, and the stories she mentions about the hardships faced, make you feel a deep compassion for these people. “ ‘In Guatemala City the police use electricity for interrogation. They have something called the ‘telephone,’ which is an actual telephone of the type they use in the field…they disconnect the receiver wire and tape the two ends to your body. To sensitive parts.’”(Page 141) This cold, hard, objective piece of information is difficult to grasp and digest. The reader feels angry that such cruel, horrid things are being done to such kind, innocent people. Throughout the story, the author paints an image of Estevan and Esperanza as this young couple just trying to make it through the hardships life has thrown at them. She describes them as ordinary people. Estevan teaches at a school, while Esperanza plays the part of a beautiful, loving wife. These two people dealt with extreme difficulties, leaving their home, friends, families and worse, losing a child. “I was afraid to understand this. I asked him if he meant that Ismene was their daughter, and Estevan said yes, that she was. She was taken in a raid on their neighborhood in which Esperanza’s brother and two friends were killed. They were members of Estevan’s teachers’ union. He told me in what condition they found the bodies…It’s hard to explain, but a certain kind of horror is beyond tears… Ismene wasn’t killed; she was taken.” (Page 142) The author’s subjective writing style and tone forces the reader to feel a certain way. The diction and subjective word choices help the reader understand and feel sympathy towards the issue of immigration and the characters in the book. She states very specific facts about the horrors and lives of these people so that one can’t help but feel empathy and compassion. Therefore, the author uses objective facts to create subjective feelings in the reading. The author manipulates words to express her opinion, and tap into the reader’s emotions to make them feel the same way. She slants her word choice in a way that reveals the issue in the favor of her bias. Barbara Kingsolver’s, The Bean Trees, evokes very clear emotions in the reader by emphasizing subjective writing styles and forcing the one to examine and analyze the difficult issues at hand.