The Bean Trees: Notes on Chapter 13

"Night-Blooming Cereus"

Night-Blooming Cereus

Chapter 13 Title--Night-Blooming Cereus (Kingsolver 181).

Character/Plot/Theme: Out of the terrible night, a sweet-smelling blossom of hope: Turtle's extended "family" pulls together with a plan to keep her with Taylor and out of an orphanage.

Mattie: You're asking yourself, Can I give this child the best possible upbringing and keep her out of harm's way her whole life long? The answer is no, you can't. But nobody else can either...Nobody can protect a child from the world. That's why it's the wrong thing to ask...

Taylor: So what's the right thing to ask?

Mattie: Do I want to try? (Kingsolver 187).

Here Mattie (like Lou Ann earlier) supports Taylor and helps her dispel her self-doubts, fears, and make the next important decision in the maze of life, does she want to try to hold onto Turtle?

I stared for a long time at the picture of the Aztec man carrying the passed-out woman, thinking about whatever Latin American tragedy it stood for. Thinking, naturally, of Esperanza and Estevan. Though I knew that more often than not it was the other way around, the woman carried the man through the tragedy. The man and the grandma and all the kids (Kingsolver 192).

Theme: another glimpse behind the outward appearance of things

Click here for more note on chapter 13.