The Bean Trees Taylor Character Analysis

The Bean Trees: Character Analysis Taylor Greer is the primary protagonist of the adventurous tale taking place throughout multiple states in America, The Bean Trees. Taylor is girl from a town of simpletons, and she wants to escape that and live freely somewhere else. The Bean Trees is written by Barbra Kingsolver, an acclaimed author, and the story is about Taylor and her life after leaving a small town in Kentucky to find happiness. Taylor is a very complex person with a number of defining characteristics such as devotion, strength, and affection that make it possible for her to have such a mediocre story. Whether or not she wants to be, Taylor has proven herself to be a very devoted person to what she feels is important or to what she cares deeply about, like Turtle, helping her friends, or getting out of her town in Kentucky. At the beginning of the story, Taylor is living in a small simpleton town in Kentucky and as a young girl, wants nothing more than to leave her Kentuckian life and style behind. She tells us “But I stayed in school. I was not the smartest or even particularly outstanding but I was there and staying out of trouble and I intended to finish.”(Kingsolver 03). It probably wasn’t fun for Taylor to stay out of trouble, but she was devoted to the idea that outside her town was something better, and spitting out babies as a pastime wasn’t all there was to life. It’s rare to see someone have an idea and stick with it with such devotion for which Taylor did indeed have. Taylor’s devotion though, is not only limited to herself, she it also devoted to her friends Esperanza and Estevan, and her adoptive daughter Turtle. She explains to her friend “Listen, I’ve made up my mind about something. I’m going to drive Esperanza and Estevan to a safe house in Oklahoma. And while I’m there I’m going to see if I can find any of Turtle’s relatives.”(Kingsolver 183). Taylor here is devoted to helping her two friends facing deportation escape government