"The Bean Tree" by Babara Kingsolver. Journal Response

by xujianing (student)

The Bean Tree Journal Response

Jenny Xu

After reading the novel The Bean Tree, so far I have concluded five ideas from the novel. I learned that the author Babara Kingsolver is also a socialist therefore I think she addressed several severe social issues in her novel.

First of all, Kingsolver mentioned how psychologically disabled impact human lives. In the novel the character Angel becomes psychologically disabled after he lost a leg as a result of a car accident. He is unable to accept the fact that his inability prevents him from his interest of being a cow boy to attend a rodeo. Therefore, Angel is unable to overcome his anguish and sorrow so he is mentally collapsed. Angel’s sickened mind results him in disturbing personalities such as low self-esteem suspicious and depression. Therefore Angel was constantly suspecting his wife’s disloyalty and eventually led to the failure of his relationship. Angel’s wife Lou Ann was trying to help him to overcome his sorrow by stay in love with him and encouraging him to live happy. However Angel refused to recover. This is an example of a severe social issue for men, where most men choose to keep reticent when facing psychological difficulties. Because most men want to show their strongest side in society, they do not want other people such as women and children who are weaker than them to see their weak side. In this case, I believe Angel in is making the wrong choice in his life and he is the one who destroys his own life. Angel values to act manly more than his mental health and his family. I believe that no matter what circumstances we are in, we always have to deal with it to minimize our worst consequences. If anything disastrous that is irreversibly happening to us, we must face it and let it go as soon as possible. Stick with what makes us feel bad does not resolve the issue and will lead us into some worse situations. Also, it is not a shame to show our weak side when we are dealing with difficulties. I believe no one is strong enough to overcome all the tragedies in their lives. We must lower ourselves when receiving help from other people; we are doing for our own good.

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The second social issue mentioned by the author is the child abuse issue. I was horrified as I was reading through the part where Turtle has bruises on her lower body. As a young woman I can never imagine if I ever experienced the same abuse by that age. If that happened to me, I don’t think I would live up until now. I am also surprised by how evil human nature can be; I believe the person who dares to abuse an infant is morally corrupted. I feel sad and angry; it is such a sin to destroy a female’s life in this way. When I was a young child, my mom sometimes whips on my body by hand if I have done something wrong. I believed my mom is a child abuser and I thought my mom is an evil person. But until now I just realized that there is a more ‘proper’ definition for child abuse. Child abuse is too horrible to imagine, as well as human nature. Furthermore, I believe an abused child life can influence the child’s personality when the child becomes an adult. An example is when the belt remains Lou Ann that she is been whipped by her father when she was a child. Therefore, Lou Ann becomes a timid, shy and passive person. I believe her personalities are a result from constantly being in fear when she was a child. As well as turtle, who is desperate to grab on other people because she is afraid to be left out alone.

The author also mentions the strength of womanhood. I feel that the author is expressing the message that in human society, women can be as outstanding as men, so they should live a life without depending on men. I noticed that in the novel, the female characters are able to live in a good life without being with men. On the other hand, the women who have men involved in their lives are not able to live as well as women who do not. For instance, Tyler does not have a father but she and her mother lived in a satisfied life without depending on anyone. They both worked though their own hands to earn money for survival. Especially Tyler, she does not get married, so she is free, therefore she is capable of earning a car and is able to explore different parts of the country. I think if she got married, she would not live a life of her own; she would have to care for her husband and perhaps look after her children. In the contrary, Lou Ann and his husband Angel did not live very well after the accident. Lou Ann quitted her job and was trying to take care of Angel; however she was not able to save their relationship. Therefore as a result, after Angel left Lou Ann, she ends up in loneliness and poverty. I agree with the author. I think women should be both mentally and economically independent from men. In my opinion, Women should always live a life on their own even though they are married. Men is not everything to women, men are only accompanies and they do not deserve women to sacrifice everything to them.

"The Bean Tree" by Babara Kingsolver. Journal Response

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