When loss is a Gain Barbara Kingsolver makes her characters change and grow through negative experience. The three main character’s loses gain them maturity. Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees reveals through the characters Lou Ann, Turtle, and Taylor, that everybody needs to experience some loss before they can mature. When Lou Ann loses Angel she gains independence. She comes across a problem with Angel, her lover, who requests a divorce and then leaves …showed first 75 words of 463 total…

…showed last 75 words of 463 total…losses in their lifetime. Lou Ann loses Angel, Turtle loses her mother, and Taylor, Estevan. All these losses in turn make the characters more mature. Kingsolver’s intentions in displaying maturity through losing somebody is to show the value of maturity as the losses become the character’s gains. She wants to make it known that maturity is not to be taken for granted and is to be earned, not simply handed over with age.