Social Critism In The Bean Trees Novel

Essay, Research Paper

Throughout the novel, kingsolver shows that poverty is very prominent in the U.S, despite the fact that it is a very rich country. From the

beginning of the book the main characters mother is shown having to call the women she cleaned houses for miss. “.. I stamped my foot and

told my own mother not to call me Mariette but Miss Marietta, as I had to call all the people including children in the houses where she

worked to Miss this or Mister that.”(p2) The fact that Taylor’s mother had to clean other peoples homes, including their toilets, tubs,

and dishes. It is degrading to her and Taylor that she has to call the people she cleans for Miss or Mister because she doesn’t have as

much money as they do. They treat her like she is in a lower class. Just because she doesn’t have money does not give people the right to

treat them like low-class citizens. Everyone would be treated equally, and not judged on the size of their income.

in the end, their happy because they have each other. They don’t need money to be happy. Taylor gets satisfaction out of helping her

friends. She moves in with her new found daughter Turtle to live with Lou Ann and her baby. Even though they didn’t have too much

money, they managed to share the choirs, and live happily. They made each other happy and didn’t need money to fill their lives with

joy. Things were fine the way they were. She Also helps Estevan and Esperenza move out of Tucson to a safer location where they can live

safely and not worry about being sent back to Guatemala, where living conditions are very poor. Even when Taylor was just a kid in school,

she was happy with her small group of friends that didn’t have as much money as the more wealthy students. Even without very much money,

Taylor still managed to keep happy.

Taylor as a child was also alienated because she was less fortunate. While in school she was called a ‘greaser’, or ‘nutter’. “.. And then

there was the rest of us, the poor kids and the farm kids. Greasers, we were called, or Nutters. The main rule was that there was

absolutely no mixing. Do you understand what I mean?” Taylor explains to Estevan. “.. The Nutters were the bottom of the pile, but we had

each other.” She continues to explain to him. She’s letting him know that there was class system, even in her school based on people’s

wealth. She also states how she was treated like lesser of a person just because she was in the poorest group of the school.