How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I had looked at some maps, but since I had never in my own memory been outside of Kentucky
[...], I had no way of knowing why or how any particular place might be preferable to any other. That is, apart from the pictures on the gas station brochures: Tennessee claimed to be the Volunteer State, and Missouri the Show-Me State, whatever that might mean, and nearly everyplace appeared to have plenty of ladies in fifties hairdos standing near waterfalls. These brochures I naturally did not trust as far as I could throw them out the window. (1.56)
Since the gas station brochures are geared towards tourists, rather than people looking to settle down in someplace new, Taylor finds it hard to learn what other states are really like. Why doesn't she look 'em up on the good ole world wide web? Because (duh) these were the days before the Internet was good, or ole, or even existed. Maybe that's also why kids in Kentucky had nothing better to do than get barefoot and preggers all the time.
Quote #2
Mama taught me well about tires, and many other things besides, but I knew nothing of rocker arms. And I did not know about the Great Plain.
The sight of it filled me with despair. I turned south from Wichita, Kansas, thinking I might find a way around it, but I didn't. There was central Oklahoma. I never imagined that any part of a round earth could be so flat. (1.58)
Taylor's cross-country road trip opens her eyes to the vastness and impressive variability of American landscapes. She's not kidding when she says that she never imagined that land could be so flat: the mountains and hills of Pittman County are absolutely all she's ever known.
Quote #3
In Kentucky you could never see too far, since there were always mountains blocking the other side of your view, and it left you the chance to think something good might be just over the next hill. But out there on the plain it was all laid out right in front of you, and no matter how far you looked it didn't get any better. Oklahoma made me feel there was nothing left to hope for. (1.58)
Many passages in The Bean Trees imply that our natural surroundings can affect our senses of safety, health, and wellbeing. If you were to read The Bean Trees as an environmentalist novel, what argument might you take away from this?