1. The Bean Tree deals with many examples of outsiders. This can be seen with all the main Characters in the book. Taylor grew up as a "nutter," but refused to act in the ways most girls did at Pittman. She was isolated among the other girls in that she tried to get good grades while the girls around her were getting pregnant. She was both an outsider to the "higher" class students and to her own group in this way. Taylor becomes an insider when she becomes friends with Lou Ann, Estevan, Esperanza, Mattie, and others, she gains support from all these people. To be an Insider, one must feel support from others in the "Insider" group. This group, composed of people different backgrounds, is what turned each individual into an insider. The feeling of an outsider often instills neglect, dependancy and nervousness as seen WIth Lou and Turtle. Turtle begins with a feeling of dependancy to Taylor and anything she could hold, to not let go, or see them disappear. Lou is nervous, she shows it with her son as she pays extra attention to him in the fear of losing him, neglect is also seen from her feelings as an outsider as she is abandoned by Angel.
2. The characters in The bean tree experience dynamic changess from human kindness after their more depressing history. Lou at first, is left depressed, lack of confidence, and always feeling that the world is out to get her. When she gets her first tastes of human kindness from Dwayne Ray, Taylor, and Turtle, she starts to open herself up and gain confidence back. By the end of the story, she gains enough self confidence and backbone to become the Manager at a salsa factory while at the same time, to have moved on beyond Angel. Taylor grows up with a hard exterior, like the walnutr shells she used to crack with passing cars. She;s tough and glum, with no purpose in life, but changes once she's thrown the responsibilities of Turtle. This time, she does not recieve human kindness, but gives it out to help the toddler. She starts to soften and care for others as well as becoming more compassioned for her outlook in life, when she left Pittman in her beat up car, she had no purpose; When she was driving home with Turtle, she had one purpose in life, to raise Turtle. Turtle is the most dynamic change in the book. She starts out weak, sick and quiet. She doesn't talk at all, msotly struck in fear and depression. Under the care of Taylor, Virgie, Edna, and Esperanza, she opens up into a talkitive and energetic toddler, shes beaming and bouncing around whever she goes.
3. Taylor started off sheltered in the rndown town of Pittman, her experiences with places outside of said town was through cartoons, Brocheures and old textbooks. Taylor learns the cold truth on Human Suffering. Her friendship with Estevan and Esperanza and her discovery of their lost daughter Ismene, as she learns that life can be overly cruel. She leans the complexity of love through her own encounter with Estevan, a man that she falls for, yet she can't have knowing that hes taken.
4. As We look throughout our entire journey through American Literature, everything is covered from poems to novels, all aspects of American life since the discovery of the United States has touched on what it was like to be an American. The hard, spartan life of the Puritans, in a vast new land, nervous and excited on what it may bring, the lives of Huck Finn, a Southern boy living in the 1800s South, the transcendentalists, harbinger of simple life and nature, to the lives of Willy, an American salesman living in the mid 1900s as a man who lived in the corruption of the American Dream; All covered the different styles of literature In America. The only part of America that was left out, was the modern time, the contemporary Literature that told the lives of modern America.
5. The book talks heavily on relationships, identity , diversity and the the drive by people to find the meaning of life. All the characters in the book, have some sort of dark or depressing History, moments where they couldn't possibly find a crueler example of the heartlessness in Humanity, but they all strive to live on and brave these Icy storms from people's hearts. Taylor goes to comfort Esperanza after her attempted suicide, despite her turmoiling emotions with Esteven , Taylor encourages Esperanza to weather the storm, "I guess the main thing I came up here to tell you is, I don't know how you go on, but I really hope you'll keep doing it. That you won't give up esperanza. I thought of that last night. Esperanza is all you get, no second chances. What you have to do is try and think of reasons to stick it out"(148). Taylor says here that staying strong can be the only reason to find meaning in their lives, as long as one realizes that they have one life to do what they want.
6. Akin to the diversity of people in America, there were numerous different viewpoints throughout the history of American Literature, while some remained constant, some were drastically different from the previous viewpoint. The Native Americans talked of freedom from oppression, how to live by Nature and not through materialism. The Puritans followed a very different Approach, to shun Nature, to live under the strict hand of God. The Romantics picked up a similar view to the Native Americans, to break from the shackles of the (then) modern Society, to live by Nature and seize the coming day. Realists' point of view depended on the belief that outside forces limited the freedom of a person, similar to the Puritans that god dictated their lives. Modernists like those from the Harlem Renaissance and The Bean Tree talk of Human freedom and diversity. What remain constant seem to be two polarized views, one of Freedom from oppression, the other stating that Freedom is an illusion, that our fate is dictated by someone else. What connects these however is the idea of Freedom of Humanity and independence, whether it really exists, connects to America's struggle of Freedom , from independence to slavery, the idea of freedom for all or a select few is reflected in the History of American Literature.
