The Bean Trees

Chapter Summaries and Analysis

Chapter 1

• “The One to Get Away”
• Setting: Pittman County, KY (fictional, rural, near Cincinnati, based on Nicholas Co.), later Oklahoma
• Main Character: Missy (Marietta)- becomes Taylor Greer
• Problem: Taylor wants out of Kentucky, to escape the pregnancy trap. She heads west and is “given” a baby to care for- Turtle.

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Chapter 1 Important Quotes

• “I have been afraid of putting air in a tire ever since I saw a tractor tire blow up and throw Newt Hardbine’s father over the top of the Standard Oil sign.
• “But I stayed in school. I was not the smartest or even particularly outstanding, but I was there and staying out of trouble and I intended to finish.”
• “If I had wanted a baby, I would have stayed in Kentucky…I could have babies coming out my ears by now.”

Chapter 1 Literary Devices

• Irony: She left Kentucky to escape motherhood, but found a baby on her journey.
• Symbolism: All the signs she sees in the restaurant and her journey, especially 1-800-THE-LORD.
• Imagery:
• “Newt Hardbine’s daddy flying up into the air, in slow motion, like a fish flinging sideways out of the water. And Newt laid out like a hooked bass.” WHY all the fish imagery???

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Chapter 2

• “New Year’s Pig”
• Setting: Tuscon, AZ
• Lou Ann Ruiz is introduced- also from Kentucky, pregnant and abandoned by her crippled rodeo riding husband, Angel (an ironic name)
• Problem: Lou Ann is alone, pregnant, not that smart, and has no means of supporting herself. However, she doesn’t want to go home.

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Chapter 2 Important Quotes

“She had expected a divorce would just develop, like a pregnancy- that eventually they would reach some kind of agreement without having to discuss it.”

“ He had also taken one clean towel, the only tube of toothpaste, and the TV.” �

Chapter 2 Literary Devices

• juxtaposition: Jesus.Is.Lord.Used.Tires and Fanny Heaven next door to each other.
• Simile: Feeding a girl is just like feeding the neighbor’s New Year’s Pig. All that work. In the end it goes to some other family.
• Signs EVERYWHERE!!! Great imagery, symbolism.

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Chapter 3

• “Jesus is Lord Used Tires”
• Set in Tuscon, AZ
• Mattie is introduced- she owns the tire store and lives above it.
• Taylor and Turtle are begining to settle into Tuscon life. Taylor needs a job-finds one at Burger Derby. There is more to Mattie than meets the eye.

Chapter 3 Important Quotes

• “In the part of Kentucky I come from, people don’t own Thoroughbreds…They just wish they could live like one.”
• “I guess I’ve lived a peculiar life.”
• “If Jesus is indeed Lord, He surely will not let this good, smart woman get blown sky high by an overfilled tire. Or me either, while He’s at it.”

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Chapter 3 Literary Devices

• Imagery describing Mattie’s garden (“Outside was a bright, wild wonderland…”)
• Symbolism related to the title...Mattie has beans, they were grown from old seeds.
• Foreshadowing: Taylor says Mattie must have grandbabies around. Mattie says, “Mmm-hmmm. Something like that.” We will find out what she means later.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - Tug Fork Water

Setting - Tuscon, AZ - Lou Ann's house

Main Characters - Lou Ann's grandmother and mother come to town

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Summary - Lou Ann's grandmother and mother visit. Angel moves back in for the duration of the visit. Thr grandmothers discuss the baby quite a bit. The grandmother gives Lou Ann water from Tug Fork to baptize the baby with. The grandmothers go home. Lou Ann and Angel have an awkward confrontation.

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Problem - Lou Ann doesn't know whether she wants to go back home or stay in Arizona, since Angel has left her. Lou Ann is left alone with a child to take care of and no way to support herself.

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Chapter 4 Important Quotes

Page 77 -"Lou Ann wondered how Granny Logan was picturing a baptism in one bottle of water."

Page 83 - "She moved around the edges of the rooms as though her big mother and demanding grandmother were still there taking up most of the space; the house felt both empty and cramped at the same time..."

Page 73 - "She bad beginning to believe that the hot dry airin her chest might be the poison her grandmother claimed it to be."

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Chapter 4 Literary Devices

Simile - "Bobby Bingo had skin like a baked potato." Page 81

Personification - "...the palm tree trunks appear to wiggle above the sidewalk, making Lou Ann think of cartoons..." Page 80

Metaphor - "...not a blue sky full of water." Page 83

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Chapter 5

• "Harmonious Space"
• Setting: Tucson, Arizona
• Main Characters: Taylor Greer, Turtle, and Lou Ann
• Minor Characters: Sandi, La-Isha, Fei, and Timothy
• Problem: Taylor got fired from her job at Burger Derby. She is looking for a place to live.

Important Quotes

• I did remember that airplane crash. On TV they showed the rescue helicopter dropping down a rope to save the only surviving stewardess from an icy river full of dead people. I remember just how she looked hanging on to that rope. Like Turtle.
• "Come on, what is it?" "It's been so long," she said. "You talk just like me."
• Female vegetarian nonsmoker to share harmonious space with insightful Virgo and cat.

Literary Devices

• Simile: "The Republic Hotel was near the exact spot where the railroad track, which at one time functioned as a kind of artery,..."
• Sarcasm: "Her great-great-grandpa was full-blooded Cherokee," I said. "On my side. Cherokee skips a generation, like red hair. Didn't you know that?"
• Hyperbole: "...they thought I was from some part of Mars where they don't have indoor bathrooms..."

Chapter 6

• “Valentine's Day”
• Main Characters-Taylor (formerly Marietta), Mattie (Owner of Jesus Is Lord Used Tires), Lou Ann (Taylor's roommate)
• Setting- Tucson
• Problem-Taylor is beginning to resort back to her old Kentucky ways. Showing her fear of tires is not gone and shopping at new to you stores like her mom.

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Chapter 6 Important Quotes

• "The old has to pass on before the new can come around"-Mattie
• "Live free or Bust"-John Wayne
• "The book our mothers had was the Bible, not some 50 cent dealie that sells from the same rack as the National enquirer"

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Chapter 6 Literary Devices

Imagery- "I felt like John Wayne in that war movie where he buckles down his helmet, takes a swig of bourbon, and charges across the minefield yelling something like "Live free or Bust!"

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Irony-Taylor left Kentucky to get away from the usual and tradition and patterns of Kentucky and she finds herself falling back in to it like when she goes to a new to you store like her mom did back in Kentucky.

Irony-She left home to grow and move on from some of her fears in Kentucky but ends up working a tire place and she is jumpy because of the tires from her seeing Newt's dad being shot away

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Chapter 7

• "How they eat in Heaven"
• Setting: Picnic in Tucson
• Main Character(s): Taylor, Lou Ann
• Action: Esperanza and Estevan were introduced. Edna Poppy and Mrs. Parsons were introduced too. Mattie appears on T.V. and discusses immigration.

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Chapter 7 Important Quotes

• "You know," Lou Ann said a while later, "If that had been Angel, he would've given himself two points for every one he could hit"
• It seemed to me that Turtle had to take practically everything on faith.
• I noticed Lou Ann measured many things in her life, besides her figure, in terms of before and after Dwayne Ray.

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Chapter 7 Literary Devices

• Imagery: Talks about Esperanza's dress.
• Irony: Story about banquet in hell, where they all have lots of food but they are all starving.
• Simile: Staggering a little with the weight like a woman with a over loaded purse.

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Chapter 8

• The Miracle of Dog Doo Park
• Tucson,Az.
• Dr. Pelinowsky
• Taylor's mother is getting married but Taylor isn't happy. Taylor took Turtle to the doctor and it was found that Turtle was close to 3 and her growth had been stunted.

Quotes from Chapter 8

• "'Can I tell you something.' I said. 'I think you talk beautifully. Ever since I met you I've been reading the dictionary at night and trying to work words like constellation and scenario into the conversation.'"

Literary Devices from Chatper 8

• Sarcasm- "'We'll, where the heck do you think I grew up, Paris, France.'"
• Simile- "Lou Ann's face was small and rounded in a pretty way, like an egg sunny side up."