The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver essays

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver essays There seems to be a buzz going around about Barbara Kingsolver's indifference towards men. Much of that, though, is generated by one of her first novels, The Bean Trees. It does ring true, for this particular story, that only one man out of many plays a laudable part. But that novel fails to represent Kingsolver's entire spectrum of stories. Another one of her just as successful novels, Animal Dreams, highlights a major male character, and a few others, with a positive sheen. The two novels, so similar in the way of a woman's self-journey, are also quite different when it comes to outlooks on men. The reason Taylor Greer, the main character in The Bean Trees, leaves her hometown is because there is nothing for her there. Mainly, she has seen pretty much every woman in the town "get hogtied to a future as a tobacco farmer's wife", or some equal/worse fate. The men in her life, including her father, have instilled a bad feeling in Taylor, either by being lazy and boring, leaving their spouses, or even beating the women who "love" them. By the time the cute northern high school teacher comes along, Taylor isn't even "moony" over him and he would be the one to like. So as a young girl, she learns not to be easily impressed by members of the male species. As the novel rumbles along her path of discovery, it refuses to introduce any positive men except for Estevan, the unattainable. It only brings in more reasons to dislike them, actually, with Taylor's best friend left heartbroken by her husband, and with Taylor's success in a virtually all-female close-knit circle of friends. Nothing in this novel suggests a positive feeling towards men. A couple of years after The Bean Trees, Kingsolver introduced a new novel called Animal Dreams. This one goes against any "male-bashing" that readers may have picked up from her previous work. In fact, it uses a man to help the main character, Codi, feel most at home with herself and her town. ...