They say you can't choose your family, but what do "they" know? If a gang of wacky New Yorkers called Monica, Rachel, Chandler, Ross, Phoebe, and Joey could put together a pseudo-family by swapping apartment keys and seeing one another through hard times, you can bet your bottom dollar that Taylor Greer can do the very same thing. In The Bean Trees, family isn't just something you're born into: it's what you make of the friends and neighbors who surround you every day.
Questions About Family
- Does Taylor have any regrets or resentment about being raised by a single mother? Does she have any fears about raising Turtle on her own?
- How might Taylor define "family," if she was asked? Would she emphasize blood relations, or does she think of kinship more loosely?
- By the end of the novel, does Taylor truly feel that Lou Ann and Dwayne Ray have become like family to her? What about Mattie? Turtle?
Chew on This
Although Taylor grows up with a narrow definition of family—thinking only of herself and her Mama together against the world—by the end of The Bean Trees, she's learned to think of kinship as something you create, not something you're born into.
Family is important to Taylor, but she also fears that it can be a trap. She's seen too much heartache and violence go hand in hand with men and women playing their roles as husbands and wives, and she doesn't want any part of anything like that.