Bean Symbolism in The Bean Trees
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
In Barbara Kingsolver's early novel The Bean Trees, beans play an important symbolic role. The young child Turtle, with whom Taylor has been saddled, makes all her great leaps of understanding in a garden or park, mostly centered around the bean plans, or "humbeans" as Turtle calls them.
When Taylor and Turtle arrive in Arizona, they pull into a tire company to repair their blowout and find a surprising oasis in the desert. The owner is kind, offering a parched Turtle something to drink, and then shows the two travelers her surprising lush garden in the back of the store. She has plants growing everywhere, but the most eye-catching are the purple beans. They serve to remind Taylor of home and make her feel comfortable in her new town. Eventually the tire store becomes more important to Taylor and Turtle, providing them with a surrogate family and love to ease their isolation and loneliness.
Taylor, who has been mute due to emotional distress, says her first words while helping Taylor plant beans. She loves vegetables, even books about vegetables, and her first words all center around vegetation. Turtle's connection to growing things emphasises the importance of life in the midst of what seems like a desolate landscape and proves that even when all seems hopeless, good can grow out of desperation...