the bean trees sparknotes literature guide barbara kingsolver

Insightfully, she questions why she can tell the truth about her failed marriage to a stranger when she couldn't tell her own mother and grandmother. When he asks Lou Ann if she's ever seen one of the commercials, Lou Ann reveals that her husband left her and took the television with him, so she hasn't seen any of the commercials. On her way home from the bus stop, Lou Ann stops to buy tomatoes from Bobby Bingo, who mentions that his son sells cars and is in television commercials. Lou Ann's mother and grandmother 'have to git' for home, the bench at the bus stop is 'hot as a poker,' and without tea to drink on the bus, Granny Logan will be 'dry as a old stick fence.' The Kentucky dialect spoken by all three women is realistic. Kingsolver includes this scene to continue to bring readers an awareness of child abuse. Lou Ann recognizes the leather belt holding it together: It is the same leather belt that her father used to whip her when she was young. Getting ready to leave for the bus, Lou Ann's mother brings her suitcase into the room. In describing Granny Logan, Kingsolver uses imagery similar to that found in poetry: 'Her old hand pawed the air for a few seconds before Ivy silently caught it and corralled it in the heavy black sleeve.' She even insists on wearing her winter coat to the bus in eighty-degree heat simply because it's January - at home in Kentucky, it's cold. They help Lou Ann with the baby, and Granny Logan manages to complain about everything - from the Tucson heat to Lou Ann's moving far away from home and marrying a 'heathern' Mexican who commits the sin of working on Sundays.

Throughout their two-week stay, Lou Ann's mother and grandmother do their best to avoid Angel. Rather than face conflict, she glosses over the problem by asking Angel to return home temporarily to further the appearance of a happy, picture-perfect marriage. Unfortunately, she is more worried about what others think and feel about her than she is about what she wants for herself. Lou Ann doesn't like lying to her mother and grandmother, but she just can't reveal the truth about her failed marriage. Because Angel ' the power of mothers and grandmothers,' he does what she asks and they pretend to be a united family. Lou Ann asked Angel to move back into the house during the women's visit because she doesn't want to admit to her relatives that her marriage is over. Her mother (Ivy Logan) and grandmother (Granny Logan), both from Kentucky, are visiting to help Lou Ann with the new baby. Lou Ann now has a baby boy named Dwayne Ray. She also shifts the setting to Lou Ann's house in Tucson, Arizona. Once again, Kingsolver shifts points of view to limited third person.

The bean trees sparknotes literature guide barbara kingsolver