The Bean Trees Themes

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 swappin...

If friends can become family in The Bean Trees, it stands to reason that family can be friends. That's certainly true for Taylor and her Mama: Alice Stamper Greer has been her daughter's closest co...

There'll be no "home, home on the range" jokes here, dear Shmoopers: we promise. Oh wait, that's what we just did. And we're not gonna stop yet: even though Taylor might roam through Kentucky, Okla...

Family, friendship, home…it only makes sense to round out all that cushiness with community. The Bean Trees makes it look like community is just as important as family when it comes to love, care...

Although it's fine to say that "education" is a major theme in The Bean Trees, it would actually be more correct to say that the book is interested in miseducation. Throughout the novel, Taylor rea...

The Bean Trees doesn't fool around when it comes to exposing and condemning injustice. Although we snarkaholic Shmoopers like to give its wholesomeness a few lighthearted digs now and then, coming...

A good man is hard to find in The Bean Trees. Not to start confusing it with Flannery O'Connor's picture of how a good man is hard to find. But anyway, for the most part, this novel is populated by...

If you check out our section on the theme of "injustice" in The Bean Trees, you'll see that the novel has one or two (or five or a hundred) critical things to say about American history, culture, a...