Outside Reading Assignment

For my outside reading assignment, I chose the book The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver. I began enjoying this book from the very first page. Kingsolver's humerous tone and use of diction adds a fun southern twist on the story of a girl who aquires an unexpected three-year-old and the adventures that they have. In the part that I'm at right now in the book, the point of view is switching back-and-forth by chapters between Taylor, the main charater, and a completely irrevelent charater named Lou Ann. Because the point of view is switching like this, I predict that Lou Ann and Taylor will meet up sometime soon. Other than this confusion, the book has been very enjoyable so far.

The literary element that believe suits the book best at this point in the story is, obvioulsy, Point Of View. With the characters changing chapter by chapter, point of view is a huge key concept in the book.

I think that it is very clever of the author to use point of view this way. By introducing a new character early in the book, when the two characters meet the reader will feel like they are already acuanted with the character and the story will continue on without delay.

To be honest, I am really not far enough in the book to be able to identify its tone, but from what I can tell so far the tone is very humorous, but has real thought and meaning behind the words written. I think it takes great skill as an author to be able to write humor and meaning all in the same book. To someone that wasn't looking for poetic meaning, you could read throught the entire book and not recognize any of the greater message hidden between the lines.