Outside Reading: The Bean Trees

    For my outside reading I am reading The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. This far I am at chapter eleven, and I really like it. I think the plot is interesting, and the characters are fun to read about. The main character, Taylor, is a really interesting character. When she left her home town in Kentucky she decided she didn't like her real name (Missy) and vowed to find a new name on her trip. I don't really think the name Taylor fits her, but it's a fine name.

    A literary element that is interesting is setting. The book starts out in Kentucky, but Taylor drives across the country eventually stopping in Tuscan, Arizona. The setting of Tuscan is a lot like Taylor's character. Taylor is interesting, funny, sassy, and quirky. I think Tuscan is the same way; it's full of random little things. For instance, "Jesus is Lord Used Tires" the tire shop where Taylor is employed. Tuscan is a great place for the setting because of the feeling it has. It's a sweet place, but at the same time it has a darker side to it. It's something that I  have yet to figure out, just as I have to figure Taylor out.

    This book reminds me of the book called The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. They aren't really that similar of books, but I just keep thinking about The Glass Castle whenever I read The Bean Trees. In The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls's family moves around a lot in SouthWest U.S., and The Bean Trees is in Arizona. Both books are centered around relationships between people. In The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls's father is an alcoholic, and her mother doesn't stick up for herself. They move around living like nomads with little money and few possessions. In The Bean Trees Taylor travels with not much of anything, picks up Turtle, and continues on her way, settling in Tuscan. She makes new friends, and starts a new life. The two books really aren't that similar, but they remind me of each other, so there is definitely commonalities.

     For my creative project I was thinking about doing some sort of map that represents Taylor's trip from Kentucky to Tuscan. I would have little stops along the way representing the significant places she went. I will have an enlarged part for Tuscan because there are so many important places. I don't know where the book is going, so this may not work, but I hope it does. It would just be a representation of how Taylor grows as she moves during the novel.

    I hope you liked this post! Thanks for reading!