Overcoming Adversity In The Bean Trees

David Arturi

Period 8 English II H

October 25, 2010

Necessary Bonds Make no mistake; the world today is not an easy place to grow up in. Hatred, poverty, and violence affect everyone. However, these are not the only problems. Every day we are all faced with adversity, ranging from simple tasks, a math test, to seemingly impossible ones, such as moving on from the loss of a good friend or family member. We are challenged to be strong and overcome this diversity. Sometimes we feel hopeless, unable to believe in ourselves, and we come close to quitting. It is then that we need a friend, someone that can be there for us in our times of need to support and keep pushing us to maximize our potential. In The Bean Trees, Taylor is faced with multiple adversities, and struggles to overcome them when she finds herself alone. Through her novel, Kingsolver illustrates with character development and dialogues how Taylor must form solid bonds with others in order to combat the hopeless, cruel nature of the world. While growing up in Kentucky, Taylor was faced with many conflicts that caused her to question her core beliefs, who she was, and who she truly aspired to be. All around her was failure, whether it was the overwhelming rate of female dropouts in her high school
due to teen pregnancies, or the broken relationships that seemed to flood the town. This type of environment has the ability to break a person down mentally, and to most girls, it did. Taylor had to be courageous in order for her to battle the odds. On a certain occasion, Taylor was faced with a life-changing, unexpected, circumstance. She was working at a hospital, a job that her hero of a science teacher provided her with, when it happened. Two bodies were rolled into the room that she was serving in, one hot and one cold. They were the bodies of Newt and Jolene Hardbine, a well-known family in her town. Newt had been shot dead, and Jolene was almost killed as well. As you can imagine, Taylor was a wreck. When she sat down with Jolene to have a conversation with her and attempt to console her, she ended up asking the question, “Why Newt?” Jolene responded with, “Why not? My daddy’d been calling me a slut practically since I was thirteen, so why the hell not? Newt was just who it happened to be. You know the way it is.” (Kingsolver 9) This is the type of lifestyle that surrounded Taylor. Even Jolene’s own father had been calling her a slut ‘practically since (she) was thirteen.’ Most girls were like Jolene. They dropped out of high school, and married early because that was the way it was. Taylor was not given high expectations, and if it were not for the way her mother raised her, she most likely would have been in the same sort of situation as Jolene. “There were two things about Mama. One is she always expected the best out of me, and the other is that then no matter what I did, whatever I came home with, she acted like it was the moon I had just hung up in the sky and plugged in all the stars. Like I was that good.” (10) Without this kind of support in her life, Taylor would have been a wreck. She needed a solid bond with her mother just to survive her life in Kentucky, a place that she had never really felt was right for her. Thankfully, the bond that her mom had provided her was enough for her to get by. She couldn’t have made it alone. Consequently, once Taylor left Kentucky, she faced a much larger problem: loneliness. Being on the road alone was not easy for her, especially once she was given a small child to take care of. In order to try and support herself and the child, Turtle, she got herself a job. She struggled with this too though. “After six days the Burger Derby manager Jerry Speller…said I didn’t have the right attitude, and I told him he was exactly right.” (67) As an inexperienced, broke parent, Taylor was in need of support. This came with a change of living arrangements. After searching for a roommate, Taylor met Lou Ann. Lou Ann was also a struggling mother who’s husband had deserted her to follow a different lifestyle. The two bonded right away, and were able to form a connection that neither had experienced before. “Within ten minutes Lou Ann and I were in the kitchen drinking diet Pepsi and splitting our gussets laughing about homeostasis and bean turds.” (72) By having one another, they realized that they could overcome any obstacle that they were faced with. For instance, when Taylor learns that she is not the legal guardian of Turtle and must give her up, she is devastated. She doesn’t know what to do and is on the verge of giving up all hope when Lou Ann questions her and pushes her to seriously consider her decision. “ ‘Taylor, don’t. Just don’t. You’re acting like it’s a lost cause… All I’m saying is there’s got to be some way around them taking her, and you’re not even trying to think of it.’ ‘…Why should I think Turtle’s better off with me than in a state home…They wont let anything happen to her.’ ‘Well, that’s sure a chickenshit thing to say.’”(175) By arguing with her, Lou Ann makes Taylor question herself and what she truly wants and what she believes is best for the child. Though it may have created tension in their relationship at the time, that’s what a good friend does, look out for one another’s best interests even if they are blinded from it at the time. Without this relationship in her life, Taylor may have just rolled over and given up on everything she’d worked so hard to achieve with Turtle. She needed a bond with Lou Ann to beat the unexpected situation the world set in front of her. On the whole, Taylor realizes at the end how important her relationships are in her life.
She understands that she cannot make it alone, and that it doesn’t mean she’s weak if she needs a little help here and there along the way. A biblical quotation states "Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up." 
- Bible: Ecclesiastes. That’s what Taylor and Lou Ann were able to do for one another, have a mutual relationship in which they picked each other up when they fell, enabling them to battle the cruel and hopeless nature of the
world.