The Bean Trees, written by Barbara Kingsolver, is a novel about a small town girl who leaves Kentucky with an old beat up car in hopes of starting a new life. During her expedition, she changes her name from Marietta to Taylor and acquires a little girl who she names Turtle because of her clingy nature. She finally decides to stay in Tucson, Arizona and eventually moves in with a new mom, Lou Ann, who is troubled with her recent divorce. Taylor is a foil to Lou Ann because she faces her fears while Lou Ann only cowers away from them, and unlike Lou Ann, she is completely unprepared for motherhood.
Taylor has the courage to face her fears while Lou Ann only cowers away from them. Taylor, for example has a fear of tires because she once saw a tractor tire explode and throw a grown man through the air. "I had never thought of tire explosions in relative terms, though it stood to reason that some would be worse than others. By no means did this put my fears to rest, but still I felt better somehow" (Kingsolver, 190). Although she still fears tires, she faces her fear in order to get on with her life.
Taylor is also a foil to Lou Ann in how she parents her child. Taylor is somewhat careless as a parent while Lou Ann is over protective of her son. Taylor shows her carelessness in parenting Turtle when she leaves her with her blind neighbor. When leaving a very active toddler with a blind person, problems are bound to come up. Of course a problem did come up when Turtle was molested in the park because her blind babysitter could not see that there was a man molesting Turtle. Lou Ann is the complete opposite of Taylor in that Lou Ann is over protective of her son. At one point Lou Ann says that anything smaller than a golf ball can choke a baby. .
"Watch out, there's peas in there. A child's windpipe can be blocked by .
anything smaller that a golf ball" (Kingsolver, 112).
This goes to show just how worried and protective Lou Ann is of her son, Dwayne Ray.