Snapping Beans By Lisa Parker Summary

Not everyone discusses every detail of their life to family members. It doesn’t mean they aren’t close, just afraid of their reaction, afraid of being seen as different or changed. The poem, “Snapping Beans” by Lisa Parker, is about a student who came home from school to spend time with her grandmother. Her grandma asked her about school and she couldn't speak up about her experiences for it might trouble her. Parker uses a combination of elements of poetry such as imagery, speaker, alliteration, and symbolism to describe the relationship between the speaker and the grandmother. First of all, Parker starts off with an imagery of the speaker and her grandmother sitting on a porch snapping beans. Parker states, “I snapped beans into the silver bowl / that sat on the splintering slats / of the porchswing between my grandma and me” (lines 1-3). With her detailed description, it was easy to imagine how and where they spend their time together. “Splintering slats” reminds me of my childhood and how I always ask my mom to take out the splinter from my finger. “Splintering
The speaker is someone who came “from school, from the North” (5) which indicates they are from the South. Going to school in the North while from the South convey the speaker is a college student. She lives in a dormitory and goes home on weekends. The speaker’s tone seems upset. When her grandma asked her about school, she repeats the phrase,“I wanted to tell her…,” but she couldn't tell anything about her experiences. We learn that the grandmother is religious for she was humming “What A Friend We Have In Jesus” in line 6. It could be one of the reasons why the speaker couldn't tell her anything about school. Her friends at school “wore nose rings and wrote poetry / about sex, about alcoholism, about Buddha” (31-32). The speaker didn’t want to trouble her grandma. She doesn’t want her to think of her friends as bad people or bad influences to