Quote 49
Mama taught me well about tires, and many other things besides, but I knew nothing of rocker arms. And I did not know about the Great Plain.
The sight of it filled me with despair. I turned south from Wichita, Kansas, thinking I might find a way around it, but I didn't. There was central Oklahoma. I never imagined that any part of a round earth could be so flat. (1.58)
Taylor's cross-country road trip opens her eyes to the vastness and impressive variability of American landscapes. She's not kidding when she says that she never imagined that land could be so flat: the mountains and hills of Pittman County are absolutely all she's ever known.
Quote 50
In Kentucky you could never see too far, since there were always mountains blocking the other side of your view, and it left you the chance to think something good might be just over the next hill. But out there on the plain it was all laid out right in front of you, and no matter how far you looked it didn't get any better. Oklahoma made me feel there was nothing left to hope for. (1.58)
Many passages in The Bean Trees imply that our natural surroundings can affect our senses of safety, health, and wellbeing. If you were to read The Bean Trees as an environmentalist novel, what argument might you take away from this?
Quote 51
It was clear to me that the whole intention of bringing the Cherokees here was to get them to lie down and die without a fight. The Cherokees believed God was in trees. Mama told me this.
[. . .]
From what I could see, there was not one tree in the entire state of Oklahoma. (1.62-63)
Taylor's sense of despair at encountering the Great Plain gives her an important insight into the injustice of forced removal and relocation. When a culture is rooted in specific landscapes, ecosystems, and territories, dislocation—which is exactly what happened to the Cherokee Nation—can be absolutely devastating.