Life is full of unexpected surprises. Barbara Kingsolver apparently understood this, and modeled the lives of the characters in her novel, The Bean Trees, accordingly. Kingsolver richly develops all of her characters and their interpersonal relationships in The Bean Trees. Woven throughout the novel are situations serving as reminders that love, beauty, and goodness can survive in environments one would least expect them to; however, at the same time, these miracles cannot happen on their own. These main ideas are reinforced by the use of bean trees, also known as wisteria vines, as natural symbols that clearly represent the kind of phenomenal symbiotic relationship Kingsolver was trying to create between the characters in her novel.

While references to the bean trees are few, the life lessons they imply are central to the message of the novel. The been trees are rugged, nourishing plants capable of surviving even in...