Taylor Greer And Lou Ann Ruiz example essay topic

In the second chapter of The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver makes the one significant shift from Taylor's perspective in order to tell the back story of Lou Ann Ruiz. This is one of only two chapters in which Taylor does not appear and does not narrate; breaking from the first person perspective is perhaps the only way for Kingsolver to resolve the problematic dilemma of providing the volumes of information concerning Lou Ann Ruiz. Lou Ann certainly contributes to the pattern of women in the novel unjustly treated by men; her husband Angel, whose appearances in the novel are primarily recalled second-hand, is portrayed as an unstable and immature man bitter over his fate and unable to continue his relationship with a doting wife. Before Kingsolver even brings together Taylor Greer and Lou Ann Ruiz, she establishes the parallels between the two women. Both are, in some sense, refugees from Kentucky and maintain their Southern sensibility even in their new locations. Additionally, both characters suddenly find themselves as single parents, Taylor because of the sudden abandonment of the Indian child, Lou Ann because her husband leaves her while pregnant.

Yet Lou Ann possesses a different manner from the assertive Taylor; she is more easygoing and diplomatic, allowing her marriage to fall apart as it inevitably would instead of taking a stand to end it, and ceding her wishes for a Protestant baptism simply because it is practical to please her nearby mother-in-law over her distant mother. Lou Ann does not have the demanding persona of Taylor, and has come to accept the difficulties in her life instead of struggling against them; this sets Lou Ann up for an eventual transformation and character development as she will assert herself within the world. Lee Sing's remark to Lou Ann at the market underscores a theme of the novel, the devaluing of women throughout society. Lee Sing views a female child as merely a possession that will serve only as the property of another family when she becomes married. The analogy is certainly a harsh one, placing the status of a woman as equal to the status of a farm animal prepared for the slaughter. Among the female characters of the novel, it is Lou Ann who is most ready to accept this pessimistic viewpoint, and is thus most ready for a drastic development and maturation.

Chapter Three: Jesus Is Lord Used Tires: Taylor and the Indian girl enter into Arizona on the second day of the new year. She remains at the Broken Arrow through the holiday season, making money by changing beds for the owner, Mrs. Hoge. Mrs. Hoge adores the Indian girl, who has come to be called Turtle, for she wishes that her heavy daughter-in-law Irene would have children. Taylor and Turtle reach Tucson during a hailstorm, just as the car breaks down once more.

They take cover at a building, where a man in army pants and a shirt that reads "visitor from another planet" questions Taylor and tries to impress her by warning her about a tarantula. Although initially wary, Taylor decides that this man is dumb but not harmful. Taylor leaves the building and drives down several blocks before reading Jesus Is Lord Used Tires. A woman named Mattie at Jesus Is Lord helps Taylor with her car, and asks Taylor what her little girl's name is. Taylor asks how Mattie knows that Turtle is a girl, and she replies that there is something about the face. Mattie serves Taylor coffee and Turtle peanut butter crackers.

She tells Taylor that her husband Samuel was from Tennessee, and it was he who started this repair shop. While Mattie gets apple juice for Turtle, two men enter; one man wants an alignment and a tire for his ORV, while the other has a black shirt, blue jeans and a priest's collar. The priest seems jumpy, and when he leaves Taylor notices that there is a whole family of Indians in the back of his station wagon. Taylor watches Mattie fix Roger's Toyota and is impressed by her kind of know-how. Taylor refuses to buy the tires for her car, telling Mattie that she can't afford them, and Mattie recommends that she keep Turtle from becoming dehydrated, which can often happen in such dry country. Taylor suspects that Mattie has grandchildren, and Mattie admits that she has "something like that".

Mattie asks what type of work Taylor is looking for, and she replies that she is looking for anything, but has experience in "housecleaning, x-rays, urine tests, and red blood counts. And picking bugs off bean vines". Mattie tells her that they have bean vines, even purple ones. Mattie shows Taylor the purple beans that Lee Sing had given her from seems she brought over in 1907. Turtle and Taylor take up residence in the Hotel Republic, within walking distance of Jesus Is Lord.

Life in the Republic is an improvement over the Broken Arrow, for Tucson is lively, with secretaries and executive types and outlandish prostitutes at night. There are also groups of homeless people. There is also another group of people who wear embarrassing hand-me-down clothes and have studios and galleries in empty storefronts. Taylor enters one of these buildings one day, intrigued by something that looks like "cherry bombs blowing up in boxes of wet sand, and the whole thing just frozen mid-kaboom". Taylor asks the woman there what it is supposed to be, and she answers that it is non-representational. The thing is entitled "Bisbee Dog #6".

It is on days like this, looking through the art gallery, that Taylor begins to feel a bit crazy. She applies for a job at the place where people give blood, but the man there asks whether she is a licensed phlebotomist in the state of Arizona, as if she were impertinent to think that she "could be on the end of the needle that doesn't hurt.".