The Bean Trees

Content Warning: This section references death by suicide and child sexual abuse.

The narrator, originally named Marietta “Missy” Greer, describes her childhood in Pittman County, Kentucky. Missy lives with her mother, who teaches her confidence and self-reliance at an early age. As she reflects on her upbringing, she describes how many children from similarly rural and impoverished backgrounds in the county didn’t ever leave the area, as she eventually did. She compares herself to Newt Harbine, a local boy whose father was injured in an accident when he overinflated a tractor tire. Newt Harbine eventually got a girl named Jolene Shanks pregnant and dropped out of school to farm tobacco.

Missy got her first job as a laboratory assistant at the local hospital by asking her science teacher Hughes Walter to help her find employment. While other high school girls were infatuated with his youth and good looks, Missy prioritized her future and her chance for independence. One day while she was working at the hospital, Jolene Shanks was brought in with a bullet wound, and Newt was brought in, already dead. As Missy tried to comfort Jolene, she learned that Newt’s father was abusive and that Newt may have attempted to murder her before dying by suicide.