The Bean Trees

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1988

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-10

Chapters 11-13

Chapters 14-17

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Background

Authorial Context: Barbara Kingsolver

Born in 1955, Barbara Kingsolver grew up primarily in rural Kentucky. She has a degree in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Arizona in Tucson, where she lived in the 1980s, during the period when she wrote her first novel, The Bean Trees. Kingsolver is known for focusing on the interactions between humans and the environment, often including themes of social justice, ecological metaphor, and complex female characters. She’s the author of nine novels. Like The Bean Trees, her second novel, Animal Dreams, is set in the Arizona, and her third, Pigs in Heavens, is a sequel to The Bean Trees that continues the story of Taylor and Turtle Greer. Kingsolver’s novels typically employ multiple plotlines and characters that overlap over the course of a story. While her fiction isn’t autobiographical, she often uses places where she has lived as settings. Kingsolver frequently depicts the struggles of marginalized peoples, and her fiction advocates for ideals of social equity and racial justice.

In addition to her fiction, Kingsolver authors nonfiction works, including Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (2007), which documents her family’s attempt to only eat food that they grew or obtained locally for a year. This work argues that the current system of factory farming is exploitative, unhealthy, and ecologically devastating, suggesting that eating locally grown foods may be the best solution. In both her fiction and nonfiction work, Kingsolver explores the notion that human communities and the natural environment are inextricably entwined and that social stability is connected to biological sustainability.

Historical Context: Guatemala Refugee Crisis

In the wake of the Guatemalan coup d’état of 1954, a series of US-backed military governments rose to power, and the country entered a state of civil war. As military juntas claimed power from 1960 to 1996, these governments enacted genocide against the country’s Indigenous Maya populations. During this period, many of the Maya people who had supported a leftist insurgent group known as the Guerrilla Army of the Poor thus faced economic and racial discrimination under the military regimes. In 1980, a group of Indigenous K‘iche’ and Ixil people occupied the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala city, intending to protest against their mistreatment. When the police attempted to raid the building and end the protest, it caught fire, and 37 people died. In the wake of this event, the Guatemalan government, led by General Efrain Ríos Montt, began to heavily persecute Mayan peasants. The Guatemalan military government enacted mass killing, disappearances, and rampant violations of human rights. Some 200,000 people were killed during this civil war, and at least 40,000 people disappeared and were never found. Most of them were Indigenous Maya people.

During the 1980s, Guatemalan immigration to the US rapidly increased. Many of these people sought political asylum. To be eligible for asylum, a person must be able to prove that they were persecuted in their home country due to race, religion, nationality, social group, or political opinion. However, many asylum seekers lacked the necessary documents to achieve this status and therefore entered the country without obtaining legal paperwork.

Geographical Context: The American Southwest

Tucson, Arizona, is located in the Sonoran desert, a region that extends from northwestern Mexico to the southwestern US. The hottest desert in Mexico and the US, the Sonoran desert has a dry climate and is home to many unique species such as the saguaro, a large, tree-like cactus. Various cacti and other plants that are adapted to arid climates, such as agave plants and creosote bushes, are the most common vegetation in the region. Southern Arizona is also home to animal species such as Gila monsters, tarantulas, and rattlesnakes. Most of the region’s precipitation occurs during winter and then again during the later summer Monsoon season. During this period, Tucson is prone to sudden, heavy thunderstorms that can’t be easily absorbed into the dry soil, causing new streambeds and arroyos to form. This rainfall provides a habitat for desert animals and vital irrigation for crops.

Historically, Tucson was inhabited by the pre-Columbian Hohokam Indigenous culture from 600 to 1450. After the arrival of Jesuit missionaries, Tucson became part of the Spanish Empire until Mexico gained its independence in 1821. It wasn’t purchased for the US until 1854. Tucson, like many places in the American Southwest, retains a significant minority population of Hispanic and Latin American peoples. Additionally, Tucson, Arizona, is located on lands that the Tohono O’odham Nation inhabits, and Southern Tucson is home to the Pascua Yaqui tribe. These Indigenous groups practice traditional farming without irrigation and grow beans, corn, melons, and squash using only the region’s natural water resources.