The Idea of Sacrifice in Novel the Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

The idea of sacrifice is not something new to most people. In the realistic fiction novel The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, the protagonist Taylor leaves her hometown to start a new life different from the stereotypical life that she would have had in Kentucky. Along the way, she meets different kinds of people with different life experiences which shape her into becoming a new person. Some of these characters include Turtle, a stray Indian child that is given to her in front of a bar in Oklahoma, Mattie, who is the owner of a tire shop that Taylor goes to, and Esperanza and Estevan, who are illegal immigrants that take sanctuary in Mattie’s store. The concept of sacrificing something in order to achieve something better is seen throughout the development of Taylor in the novel. Kingsolver reveals the theme of giving up things that are of vital importance to grow as a person is seen as Taylor gives up her ideas about motherhood to be Turtle’s mother, when she leaves Kentucky, and when she loses her innocence during her more specific journey.

At the beginning of the book, Kingsolver makes a point to  Taylor avoiding motherhood and being a mother.  This is a driving factor for Taylor’s departure from Kentucky. When the readers are first introduced to Taylor, K

This opinion on motherhood changes as the book progresses, as Taylor becomes more and more attached to Turtle. When Turtle is almost kidnapped in the park, Taylor goes into a depressive state thinking about how Turtle might never talk and be normal ever again. At the end of the novel, she fights to get legal rights over Turtle and puts Esperanza and Estevan at risk to do so. At the beginning of the book, Kingsolver introduces the readers to Taylor’s biggest fear in life: Tires. Later on in the chapter readers are also introduced to Taylor’s other fear: getting pregnant and having a child.

At the end of the novel, she says, “Do you know, I spent the first half of my life avoiding motherhood and tires, and now I’m counting them as blessings?” (Kingsolver 144). Kingsolver introduces Taylor’s fears at the beginning of the book and has her overcome these fears as a way to show Taylor maturing over the course of the book. There is also a connection between the two fears which is why she manages to overcome them. Taylor becomes a mother first at random when Turtle is given to her. She gets over her fear of tires by working at a tire shop in order to take care of herself and Turtle. Taylor getting a job leads to Taylor feeling more stable and mature, which leads to Taylor losing her fear of motherhood.  Kingsolver shows how Taylor giving up these fears has helped her mature into a more stable and confident person. According to an article written about the bond between mothers and their daughters

For most people leaving home is a tough thing to do, especially when it is all someone has ever known. In Taylor’s case, it is similar except for the fact that Taylor is looking forward to leaving home. Taylor saves up for years on end at her job as a lab technician and buys a car in order to leave Kentucky to start a new life for herself. When Taylor is talking about the stereotypical life in Kentucky she says, “I knew the scenery of Greenup Road, which we called Steam-It-Up Road, and I knew what a pecker looked like, and none of these sights had so far inspired me to get hogtied to a future as a tobacco farmer’s wife” (Kingsolver 3). Kingsolver’s usage of the word hogtied indicates that Taylor views this type of future to be similar to the life of an animal. Even though Taylor has a bad perception of her hometown and Kentucky in general she still has a supportive mother who is supportive of her and her beliefs. When talking about her mother, Taylor says, “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” (Kingsolver 10). The inclusion of the encouraging and kind characteristics that Taylor’s mom possesses, is a way that Kingsolver shows readers how difficult leaving home was for Taylor. The description of Taylor’s life in Kentucky is Kingsolver’s way of showing the readers how giving something up can be good and bad.  Leaving Kentucky separated her from her mother, but it also got her away from the terrible environment that she so badly wanted to get away from. This again goes back to the theme of sacrificing something in order to grow as a person. Taylor is giving up the only family she has to grow and become her own person.

In an article about migrant children leaving their families and crossing the border on their own, one parent says, “Life for children in these arrangements generally is far superior to existence in Mexico at the border [...]” (Nathan 1). Children leaving their homes and families in order to live a better life is a parallel to what Taylor does. These children are leaving for their safety and well-being but the sacrifice they have to make is the prospect of ever seeing their family again. Taylor is also leaving her support system in order to better her life and prevent herself from going in the typical route that girls in Kentucky take.

Innocence 

When Taylor leaves home she thinks she is ready to take care of herself. This goes south almost immediately when Taylor is randomly given a child in front of a bar. When she finally finds a place to stay and work, she names the child Turtle since the child holds onto her like a Turtle. When she finds out that the child has been abused, she says, “I thought I knew about every ugly thing that one person does to another, but I had never even thought about such things being done to a baby girl”(Kingsolver 24).

When Kingsolver first introduces Esperanza and Estevan, they are portrayed as migrants who are using Mattie’s house as a sanctuary. Other than that Kingsolver does not give the reader or Taylor any more information about their past or backstory. Later in the novel, when esperanza attempts suicide, Taylor finds out why Esperanza keeps getting upset when looking at Turtle. She finds out that they had a daughter that was taken from them and that they could not get her back in order to keep many other people from getting hurt. After learning about this incident Taylor is overwhelmed with emotion and says, “There was no way on earth I could explain what I felt, that my whole life had been running along on dumb luck and I hadn’t even noticed” (Kingsolver 144). Her entire life Taylor worked hard to get away from the life that she thought was difficult. Kingsolver reveals the tragic life of Esperanza and Estevan as a way to humble Taylor about her life experiences. Taylor is letting go of her considerably blissful and conservative view of the world which comes off as shocking initially but then helps her function better in the world.

Out of the many themes in the book, The Bean Trees, Kingsolver uses the theme of sacrifice to thrive and mature the characters in the book. One of the characters that grow and mature the most throughout the novel is Taylor herself. Kingsolver uses some of the most important things in her life such as ideals, thoughts, and places.