Barbara's Beans Tree

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English

May 17, 2017

Barbara's beans tree portrays women from a feminist point of view, their character shows resilient and strong women facing the imperfect 20th century America, their strong commitment and relationships combined with endurance are of great importance to their survival in the cruel world. The women portrayed are interdepend and form bonds based on motherhood that enables them to help each other, this is portrayed when Esperanza is able to come to terms with the loss of her child Ismene when she had to symbolically give up Turtle and say goodbye, in return, she supports Taylor in her adoption of Turtle. All women who are mothers are single mothers, the men are portrayed as laid back with no common interest to bond them together and they are taking a laid back role. When Taylor's father leaves her mother when she was pregnant portrays men as irresponsible and lack disunity in dealing with issues.

The men in the novel are widely portrayed violent and demeaning and irresponsible to women, this character is portrayed by the fact that Turtle had been sexually and physically abused by which portrays her as a laidback character. Secondly Taylor's father leaving her mother portrays him as irresponsible; secondly, men are showed to be violent through the character of Newt Hardbine father who later revealed to be crippled and whose abusive nature leads his son to shoot his wife Jolene and himself. This portrays men as irresponsible. On the other hand, women are more responsible an example is how Taylor's mother brought her up and she never felt like she suffered growing up without a father.

Women are portrayed as independent of men and can achieve anything through their own unity. An example is when Lou Ann finds a job and she forgets husband who is irresponsible to a point where he is hardly missed. The main male character is Estevan and this can be sorely connected to the fact that he is supporting her while she mourns the loss of their daughter, and secondly because Taylor likes him, this shows that the character of men is only relevant where they are supportive towards female, Barbara shows men as dependent on women in order to have relevance.

Men are portrayed as stagnant and seem not to show much effort to improve their lives, Newt Hardbine father lives in frustration because of his disabled leg compared to Esperanza who is shaken by the loss of her child and even though she attempts suicide that does not make her bitter as she tries to heal and lead a normal life. Lou Ann husband makes no attempt to be responsible and improve their relationship. This portrays the female character as dynamic and flexible since the women work hard towards better lives away from the problems they are currently facing.

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