How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Within ten minutes Lou Ann and I were in the kitchen drinking diet Pepsi and splitting our gussets laughing about homeostasis and bean turds. We had already established that our hometowns in Kentucky were separated by only two counties, and that we had both been to the exact same Bob Seger concert at the Kentucky State Fair my senior year. (5.62)
Both Lou Ann and Taylor feel out of their elements in Tucson, and so they're perfectly primed to become the best of friends. More than anything else, it's their shared sense of homeland that draws them together at first: as two Kentucky gals in a "foreign" land, each of them can feel sure that at least one other person in town can understand her. How they started talking about Bob Seger within ten minutes, we can only guess.
Quote #2
Lou Ann hid her mouth with her hand.
"What?" I said.
"Nothing." I could see perfectly well that she was smiling.
"Come on, what is it?"
"It's been so long," she said. "You talk just like me." (5.108-112)
Never overestimate the powers of homesickness and common language when it comes to making friends. Sometimes all it takes is a similar accent and a Bob Seger reference to make ya feel right at home.
Quote #3
There was a whole set of things I didn't understand about plants, such as why hadn't the sweet peas been killed by the frost? [...] While the water glugged out over the sweet peas I noticed Mattie looking at me with her arms crossed. Just watching. I missed Mama so much my chest hurt. (6.36)
Throughout The Bean Trees, the life cycles and growing conditions of plants are almost always associated with human networks of kinship, friendship, and community. Taylor thinks of Mattie as one of her only two friends in Tucson, but this passage also suggests that Mattie is starting to stand in as a surrogate Mama in Taylor's life. Not to mention giving yet another plant-human link for you to chew on.
Quote #4
Later that night when the kids were in bed I realized exactly what was bugging me: the idea of Lou Ann reading magazines for child-raising tips and recipes and me coming home grouchy after a hard day's work. We were like some family on a TV commercial, with names like Myrtle and Fred. I could just hear us striking up a conversation about air fresheners. (6.60)
It makes Taylor uncomfortable to think that she and Lou Ann are "playing house." Taylor wants to be friends, not pretend to be a family. And since she picks names like Taylor and Turtle and knows people like Newt, you can't blame her for thinking "Fred" is kind of strange.
Quote #5
"I'll tell you one thing," Lou Ann said. "When something was bugging Angel, he'd never of stayed up half the night with me talking and eating everything that wasn't nailed down. You're not still mad, are you?
I held up two fingers. "Peace, sister," I said, knowing full well that only a complete hillbilly would say this in the 1980s. Love beads came to Pittman the same year as the dial tone. (6.110-111)
In true chick-lit and chick-flick style, The Bean Trees proves that there are very few arguments in the world that a pile of junk food and an all-night gab session won't fix. The chapter in which this passage appears may be called "Valentine's Day," but sounds like a Galentine's Day in true Leslie Knope fashion to us. Let the waffles with whipped cream commence.
Quote #6
"I ought to be shot for looking like this," she'd tell the mirror in the front hall before going out the door. "I look like I've been drug through hell backwards," she would say on just any ordinary day. "Like death warmed over. Like something the cat puked up."
I wanted the mirror to talk back, to say, "Shush, you do not," but naturally it just mouthed the same words back at her, leaving her so forlorn that I was often tempted to stick little notes on it. (7.70-71)
Although Taylor does her best to be a supportive friend to Lou Ann, she soon comes to realize that her efforts to boost Lou-Ann's self-esteem are always going to fall on rocky ground. Try as she might, Taylor knows that when it comes right down to it, it's up to Lou Ann to be a better friend to herself. Still, though, a sticky note or two couldn't hurt…
Quote #7
Lou Ann was staring at me, transfixed. "You know, I think you're the first person I've ever told this to that understood what I was talking about." (7.89)
There's more than an old Kentucky bond to draw Lou Ann and Taylor together. Despite all their differences, these two just get each other, plain and simple.
Quote #8
I thought of Esperanza, her braids on her shoulders. Esperanza staring at the ceiling. She would be lying on a cot somewhere, sweating the poison out of her system. [...] All of Esperanza's hurts flamed up in my mind, a huge pile of burning things that the world just kept throwing more onto. Somewhere in that pile was a child that looked just like Turtle. I lifted Estevan's hand from my ribcage and kissed his palm. It felt warm. Then I slid off the sofa and went to my own bed. (9.91)
Uh oh. What to do when your friendly feelings start hatching into butterflies in your stomach? Taylor's budding friendship with Estevan is soon complicated by her more-than-friendly feelings towards him—and by the fact that he's married, and his wife just tried to commit suicide. This is what the "It's complicated" button is all about. But in keeping with The Bean Trees' wholesome vibe, Taylor isn't about to act on her warm fuzzies: she has too much respect for both Estevan and Esperanza for that.
Quote #9
Estevan took off his shirt and lay back against the front of the boat, his hands clasped behind his head, exposing his smooth Mayan chest to the sun. And to me. How could he possibly have done this, if he had any idea how I felt? I knew that Estevan had walked a long, hard road beyond innocence, but still he sometimes did the most simple, innocent, heartbreaking things. As much as I have ever wanted anything, ever, I wanted to know how that chest would feel against my face. I looked toward the shore so he wouldn't see the water in my eyes. (15.23)
Whereas Taylor's friendships with Lou Ann and Mattie come relatively easy, being a good friend to Estevan is a whole 'nother kettle of fish. Nothing spoils a friendly canoe trip like unrequited love!
Quote #10
They both wore clean work shirts, light blue with faded elbows. Esperanza had on a worn denim skirt and flat loafers. I had asked them please not to wear their very best for this occasion, not their Immigration-fooling clothes. It had to look like Turtle was going to be better off with me. When they came out that morning dressed as refugees I had wanted to cry out, No! I was wrong. Don't sacrifice your pride for me. But this is how badly they wanted to make it work. (16.37)
It's a testament to Estevan and Esperanza's friendship that they're happy to do whatever they can to help Taylor keep Turtle, even if it means sacrificing their own dignity. Seriously, Shmoopers: where else do people try so hard to do right by one another?