The Bean Trees: Notes on Chapter 17

"Rhizobia"

Rhizobia, nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria http://nzdl.sadl.uleth.ca/gsdl/collect/fnl2.2/archives/HASH01c3.dir/e01p171.gif

Underground Railroad (Kingsolver 231).

Allusion: reference to network of supporters assisting southern black refugees in 19th century America.

Taylor: ...I can't stand to think of you stuck here forever.

Estevan: Don't think of us here forever. Think of us back in Guatemala with our families. Having another baby. When the world is different from now (Kingsolver 232).

Theme: remember the dormant frogs in the desert? How might the realization of one's identity, or the fulfillment of one's self (remember the man in the maze) involve making decisions that on the surface may seem antithetical to that fulfillment? The image of the complex maze is a fitting one here.

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