Bean+Trees+New+Historicist+and+Jungian

New Historicist Link

Jungian Link

Opening Activity:

Discussing Men

Questions for Chapters 5 & 6

1.) How do you think Taylor sees Turtle? (i.e. a nuisance, a blessing, something else…) 2.) What do the vegetables symbolize, or at least, why are they important in the story?  3.) On Page 107 Mattie says, “Just don’t tell me you’re running from the law. I’ve got enough of that on my hands.” What do you think she means by this? Does it have any ties to the other “whole set of people who spoke Spanish and lived with her upstairs for various lengths of time” (page 105)? 4.) In Chapter 6 Taylor instigates a fight between herself and Lou Ann stating that she feels they are acting like a married couple. Since she has no real reason to reject Lou Ann's friendship what might this fight say about Taylor's character? 5.) It's interesting to note how Kingslover seems to fill one character's absence with another. The most prominent example is the introduction of Mattie after Taylor's mother is left behind. Do you see Mattie as more of a mother figure or a mentor? How does she compare to the other female characters in the novel so far? 6.) What do you see as negative and positive influences Taylor has on the characters surrounding her?

Joanne H. and Rachel P.

Works Cited: Allen,  John   Alexander. "The Female Hero in American and British Literature." Hollins Critic. 19.5 (Dec. 1982): p14. Literature    Resource     Center. Gale. ARAPAHOE    HIGH SCHOOL. 30 Apr. 2008  <    [|http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRC&u=litt24484>.     Hedges, Warren. SOU English Dept., 2000. [|http://www.sou.edu/English/Hedges/Sodashop/RCenter/Theory/Explaind/nhistexp.htm Himmelwright, Catherine. "Gardens of auto parts: Kingsolver's merger of American Western myth and Native American myth in The Bean Trees." The Southern Literary Journal. 39.2 (Spring 2007): p119. Literature    Resource     Center. Gale. ARAPAHOE    HIGH SCHOOL. 29 Apr. 2008  <[|http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRC&u=litt24484  Lojek, Helen. "Reading the Myth of the West." South Dakota  Review. 46-61. ** Rpt. in **   Literature     Resource     Center. Gale, Cengage Learning. 46-61.  Literature     Resource     Center. Gale. ARAPAHOE    HIGH SCHOOL. 30 Apr. 2008 <   [|http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRC&u=litt24484>.   