Some people mature faster than others, and some take their time doing so. In the book The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, a young woman named Taylor happens to end up with a little girl, Turtle. Throughout the story, Kingsolver mentions birds often. Birds represent maturity to Turtle. She use birds to compare to Turtle's life and her situations while she is maturing and growing up. The first instance of birds symbolizing Turtle maturing is when Lou Ann, Taylor and their friends are sitting in Lou Ann’s living room and Turtle is having trouble eating a piece of pineapple. They all laughed and cheered her on but she got startled and cried. Mr. Parsons takes a spoon and feeds a piece to her. The narrator explains, “ She looked like a newborn
All throughout chapter three John Steinbeck uses imagery. He describes the turtle in such detail that the reader can see how he jerks across the terrain. Especially on page 20 when the desert turtle struggles up the embankment. The reader feels like they are there watching him and desires to help it up. Steinbeck makes it seem as an epic quest that the turtle takes part in.
In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Bean Trees, one major social issue that Kingsolver attempts to educate her readers on is xenophobia. Virgie, a character in the novel, is someone Kingsolver uses to demonstrate the presence and effect of xenophobia. During a dinner party with Virgie and Estevan, a refugee working at a restaurant owned by Chinese immigrants, Estevan mentions how he “work[s] with a very kind family who speak only Chinese.” (Kingsolver 111) In response, Virgie “mutter[s] that she thought this was a disgrace,” as Virgie believes that immigrants “ought to stay put in their own dirt, not come here taking up jobs.”
How The Bean Trees is a coming of age themed novel In The Bean Trees Taylor and Lou Ann struggle to come of age, or mature, with these two being very important characters I believe a major theme of the book is coming of age. There are many pieces of evidence to support this claim, therefore I will provide them. Our first example would have to be Taylor’s journey throughout the book.
In the Bean Tree men see what they want to see but don't see it from a woman's perspective. Lou Ann is on a bus and she is reading a pamphlet about woman's pregnancy. “On the bus she decided it must have something to do with the fact that the pamphlets were put together by men, who in her opinion liked the looks of a mother and baby better than a pregnant woman. She was fairly sure about this. On the bus, for instance, several men would stand up to offer her a seat, but they wouldn't quite look at her.
Kingsolver relates this to various characters in the book, particularly Taylor, Turtle’s adopted mother. In addition to that, the birds in the throughout the story are also a nature based form of symbolism used widely in the book. As Taylor’s life changes so do the sounds the birds make; each of these bird sounds representing different emotions like comfort when the mother quail and her chicks are walking in
The definition of motherhood is “the state of being a mother.” Throughout the novel, The Bean Trees, written by Barbara Kingsolver, Taylor Greer learns the simple things about motherhood when a toddler, Turtle, is thrown in her car. Learning to raise the child brings up many tough decisions and obstacles, letting Tayor experience what love really is. Readers get to see everything Taylor does, reading through her eyes and getting to watch her mature into a young, independent individual. In the book, the storyline revolves around Taylor Greer’s growth, as she explores motherhood through love, maturity, and sacrifice.
In Barbara Kingsolver’s story, “The Bean Trees”, something that makes it so effective is her use of figurative language to depict scenery. In chapter 12, Mattie takes Taylor, Esperanza and Estevan to a beautiful desert at the time of the first rain, so they can see the natural world come to life. In order to make the scene come alive, Kingsolver uses sillies, metaphors and personification as a mean of figurative language. Kingsolver personifies the mountains and city.
Even though the birds did not want to go with the terrible things they used their nets and captured the birds. Then when Yertle the Turtle turned to the other turtles and
This passage is located on page 192 of Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees. At this point in the novel, Taylor has recently learned that she has no legal claim over Turtle, and must either hand her over to the state or figure out a way to adopt her. In the passage above, while considering which choice she should make about the young girl, Taylor is intrigued by a photo on a calendar in the kitchen.
In the book Tangerine by Edward Bloor This moment represents is, paul finley seeing dad actually doing something with him and for him instead of mom. The way I found that is when mom said “paul we’ve been talking about it and we’ve decided that your father will take you to St. Anthony’s today. ”. The deeper meaning behind the “It looked healthy enough, strong enough. But it was bound in a criss cross of metal stakes.
Flannery O’Connor’s The King of the Birds is a narrative explaining the narrator’s obsession with different kinds of fowl over time. The reader follows the narrator from her first experience with a chicken, which caught the attention of reporters due to its ability to walk both backward and forward, to her collection of peahens and peacocks. At the mere age of five, the narrator’s chicken was featured in the news and from that moment she began to build her family of fowl. The expansive collection began with chickens, but soon the narrator found a breed of bird that was even more intriguing; peacocks.
Daphne du Maurier’s short story “The Birds” is a piece of fiction that displays many literary elements. This story displays suspense, foreshadowing, and imagery. By using these literary elements du Maurier creates an intense story that leaves the readers wondering what happens next and wanting more. First, foreshadowing is used to reference events that will happen further into the story.
In The Bean Trees, Taylor is one of the people who is hurt emotionally knowing that she let Turtle down by “letting” someone hurting Turtle. According to The Bean Trees, “She won’t talk…. Not now... Maybe not ever,” (Kingsolver, 224). Based on the tone of the way Taylor is talking about Turtle’s situation from this evidence is with disappointment, sadness, and lost hope.
The birds set her down on a turtle’s back. To bring comfort
“Report to Wordsworth” by Boey Kim Cheng and “Lament” by Gillian Clarke are the two poems I am exploring in this essay, specifically on how the common theme of human destruction of nature is presented. In “Report to Wordsworth”, Cheng explores the damage of nature caused by humans and man’s reckless attitude towards this. In “Lament”, the idea of the damage of oceans from the Gulf War is explored. In “Report to Wordsworth”, Boey Kim Cheng explores the theme of human destruction of nature as a response to William Wordsworth, an romantic poet who celebrated nature’s beauty in his poetry.