Balancing the Individual with the Community in Barbara Kingsolvers The Bean Trees :: Kingsolver Bean Trees Essays

In an interview with Barbara Kingsolver by David Gergen, editor-at-large for U.S. News & World Report, Kingsolver states, I think everything I write is nearly the idea of community and about the special challenge in the United States of balancing our idealization of the individual, or glorification of, of personal freedom and the individual with the importance of community, how to sense of balance those devil offices. (Qtd. by Gergen) I found this idea of Kingsolvers to be the basis of her al-Quran The bonce Trees. Kingsolver develops the story of a strong young woman, named Taylor Greer, who is determined to stool her own individuality. The character learns that she must balance this individualism with a loading to her community of friends, and in doing this, her life is immeasurably enriched. Many books speak of family, community, and individuality. I believe, however, that the idea that Barbara Kingsolver establishes in her book, The Bean Trees, of a strong sense of indivi dualism, consciously balanced with a keen understanding of community as widen family, is a relatively new idea to the genre of the American novel. The balance of the individual and community is a prevalent theme throughout The Bean Trees. Kingsolver organizes the book by first introducing us to Taylors unique individuality and then combining that with the community ideal. The first chapter of the book takes place in Kentucky where Taylor lives with her mother. by means of the incidents in Taylors early life, we come to recognize her strong resolve to be individual. In her book Barbara Kingsolver A Critical Companion, Mary Jean DeMarr agrees with me when she tells us Taylor is a strong character who usually knows what she wants and what she wants to do and goes about acquiring and doing it (45). Taylor refers to herself when she was younger, along with a neighbor boy, as dirty-kneed kids scrapping to beat hell and exhausting to land on our feet (TBT 2). Her independence is also e vident in the focusing she soaked. When teased that she dressed like an eye test for color blindness, she reveals she was in truth flattered. I had decided early on that if I couldnt dress elegant, Id dress memorable (TBT 6). Taylor was also determined not to accept what was considered the norm for the girls in her town. She decided that she would finish school, and no matter what, she would not get pregnant.