When Taylor and Turtle are in the library, they find a horticulture encyclopedia. Turtle recognizes a black-and-white picture of wisteria — bean trees. Taylor reads the article about wisteria to Turtle.
But this is the most interesting part: wisteria vines, like other legumes, often thrive in poor soil, the book said. Their secret is something called rhizobia. These are microscopic bugs that live underground in little knots on the roots. They suck nitrogen gas right out of the soil and turn it into fertilizer for the plant.
The rhizobia are not actually part of the plant, they are separate creatures, but they always live with legumes: a kind of underground railroad moving secretly up and down the roots.
"It's like this," I told Turtle. "There's a whole invisible system for helping out the plant that you'd never guess was there." I loved the idea. "It's just the same with people. The way Edna has Virgie, and Virgie has Edna, and Sandi has Kid Central Station, and everybody has Mattie. And on and on."
The wisteria vines on their own would just barely get by, is how I explained it to Turtle, but put them together with rhizobia and they make miracles.
There's nothing I can really add to that. The people in this novel are all bean trees. And they're all rhizobia, too. I really loved the symbolism of that image.
Article comments
1 - dan
i had to read The Bean Trees 5 years ago for my junior year in high school. not only was it the least favorite of that year, it was a book i pained myself through because i hated it so. Barbara Kingsolver is not a brilliant writer by any means; in fact her wording i found quite dull, her characters as transparent as phantoms, and the plot uninspiring. -thanks
2 - Dana Huff
Your email address is spam-protected, just an FYI. I wanted to share my rebuttal with you, but you used a fake email address. I am not very mean -- I was actually only going to say it's decidedly a "chick book," and some of my male students didn't enjoy it as much as the girls did. Aside from that, I would suggest that you need to bring certain things to a book when you read it, and no offense, but if this book didn't speak to you, you weren't bringing the right things to it. Teachers are often guilty of murdering appreciation for books, too. Books speak to us for a variety of reasons, and it would be hard to find the average teenage male that this book could speak to. That said, many of my male students were open-minded and receptive to the book and enjoyed it a great deal.
"Dull" wording isn't really specific. I don't know what you mean by that. Her characters were often symbolic, which I grant you could be seen as transparent. Plot uninspiring? Again, what do you mean by that? If it means you were supposed to go out and try to change the world -- think of single parents and illegal immigrants in a different light -- then I agree with you. It didn't make me feel that way either. I think when you share your opinion in the way you did, it would be more polite to underscore that it is indeed your opinion. The way you stated it could be considered sort of an attack rather than an attempt to engage in intellectual discourse. So to say "she isn't a brilliant writer" is very different from saying, "I don't think she is a brilliant writer."
3 - nancy
I am teaching this book to a group of 7th graders and they are loving evry minute of it. The characters are identifiable and the plot is mesmorizing for the purpose of teaching visualization. I am searching for a movie version to watch after we finish the book. Finishing it will be a great accomplishment for them. Any suggestions.
4 - nancy
Sorry..typing fast...I meant "every" not evry.
5 - curious
is this published?
6 - Bunny
I was sure I had seen the movie version of "The Bean Trees" when my friend was telling me about Barbara Kingsolver's book. Is this true? I think it was a TV movie out about 10+ years ago. I would like to find it. Can you help. By the way... Dan's comments about Kingsolver's writing being untalented, are very off base. He needs to read more to find this author has quite a way with words.
7 - lt
I had to read this book for my summer assignment this year and it took a while for me to get into the book and relate to the character. I had to try real hard to find emotions and feelings simlar to what Taylor was feeling. I think I would've enjoyed this book more if I was reading it for enjoyment, not for school.
8 - M.r
They shoul make this book into a movie if not already
9 - Carolina Luz
I just finished this book, and thoroughly enjoyed it. However the description of rhyzobia and leguminous plants is not quite correct. The rhyzobia fix nitrogen from the air not from the soil, as stated in the book. This way they increase the nitrogen content of the soil, thus improving plant growth.
10 - Opinion
Although I tend to agree with Dana Huff about the story and the characters, it does not mean that each person may have a differing opinion about the whole book in general. To state that someone isnt being open minded while reading and that they are bringing the wrong things to the table, is as much of an attack as what dan said. Each person is entitled to their own opinions and although I do not agree with his, it is without a doubt that he is still entitled to hold that opinion without being attacked for it. If the book didn't appeal to him, he is fully allowed to speak that opinion, granted, it could have been a bit better worded.
11 - David
In my personal opinion, The Bean Trees was a very boring and monotonous book. The characters are generic and the plot is nothing special, and the writing style really grates on me.
12 - Zach
I felt the book read very well except in the begoinning until I figured out that it kept switching characters. This book read very smoothly for a school book. I hate reading complicated books with weird plots so this was up my ally. I suggesdt this book to people who don't read much.