The importance of family, a major theme in the novel, is evident in the relationship between Taylor and her mother. Taylor's mother thinks that Taylor "hung up [the moon] in the sky and plugged in all the stars." She expects the best of Taylor, and Taylor doesn't disappoint her. Rather than get pregnant and drop out of high school like many of her classmates, Taylor finishes high school and is determined to make a life for herself. Her independent and courageous nature stems from the secure environment her mother provides. When Taylor feels as though she isn't good enough to ask for a job at the Pittman County Hospital lab, she talks to her mother, who boosts Taylor's morale and offers encouragement. Taylor asks for the job and ends up working in the lab for five and a half years. Later, when Taylor is working in the lab and has to help Jolene Shanks, an old schoolmate who's been shot by her father-in-law, and has to see Jolene's dead husband, the only place she wants to be is home so that she can tell her mother about the worst sight she has ever seen. Her mother creates a safe and supportive environment for Taylor, much like Taylor struggles to create for Turtle later in the novel.
Taylor's mother always tells Taylor that, as a last resort, they can "go live on the Cherokee Nation." Because Taylor's great-grandfather was a full-blooded Cherokee, they have "head rights" (a Native American tribe member's claim to tribal property). Here, Kingsolver refers to the Cherokee Trail of Tears when she mentions that Taylor's great-grandfather was "too old or too ornery to get marched over to Oklahoma," so he stayed in Tennessee.
The rural Kentucky setting in which The Bean Trees begins affords Kingsolver an opportunity to make use of her extensive background in biology and natural history. As a child, Taylor goes pond fishing. She catches blue gills and bass and watches the Jesus bugs walking on the surface of the water. Taylor and her mother have a colorful flower bed full of blooming marigolds and Hot Tamale cosmos. Another example of Kingsolver's biology background influencing the novel is Taylor's job in the Pittman County Hospital lab, which entails looking through a microscope to count red blood cells, testing urine, and helping with x-rays.
