Kingsolver shifts the point of view in Chapter 2 to limited third person, relating information as it is seen and understood by Lou Ann Ruiz. Lou Ann, who, like Taylor, is a native Kentuckian, lives in Tucson, Arizona (an environment quite familiar to Kingsolver, who moved there in the late 1970s). Much to her mother's chagrin, Lou Ann married Angel Ruiz four years earlier. Soon after being married, they moved to Tucson to be close to Angel's family. Lou Ann's mother doesn't like Angel because he is Mexican: According to Lou Ann's mother, Mexicans are "trying to take over the world like the Catholics." Here, Kingsolver portrays the prejudice of Lou Ann's mother to reveal the fact that discrimination, in many forms, is prevalent in American society. Lou Ann tries to convince her mother that she is wrong about Mexicans by sending her newspaper clippings about successful Mexican people.
After being married for only a year, Angel has an accident in his truck. His leg is amputated at the knee, and he has to wear a prosthesis — an artificial leg — which "jingles" when he walks. Angel's amputated leg never bothers Lou Ann, but Angel can't accept it. He becomes dissatisfied with life and irritated by everything around him. When his relationship with Lou Ann falls apart, Lou Ann feels guilty because, in her mind, she's done nothing to try to save the marriage. She even thought about leaving herself, but it was easier to endure Angel's verbal abuse and just drift along. On Halloween, Angel cravenly packs his things and leaves Lou Ann while she is at her doctor's office for her seventh-month prenatal exam.
Many readers might object to the suggestion that Lou Ann feels guilty about Angel's walking out on her. Perhaps Lou Ann feels more indifferent about Angel's leaving her than she does guilty. Remember as you read the novel that the women in The Bean Trees ultimately survive — even flourish — without men in their lives. Kingsolver seems to suggest that women do not need men in their lives to feel self-worth.
