The Bean Trees

“But we were cut out of basically the same mud, I suppose, just two more dirty-kneed kids scrapping to beat hell and trying to land on our feet.”

This quote uses an idiom, referencing the common expression “cut from the same cloth,” which compares how people of similar backgrounds or temperaments are like articles of clothing made from the same piece of fabric. However, the novel plays with this expression by exchanging cloth for mud, indicating that Taylor and Newt’s shared characteristic is their poverty.

“There were two things about Mama. One is that she always expected the best out of me. And the other is that then no matter what I did, whatever I came home with, she acted like it was the moon I had just hung up in the sky and plugged in all the stars. Like I was that good.”

Using a simile, Taylor suggests that her mother’s reaction to her modest achievements resembled how a person would react to a far greater and more impressive accomplishment. This quote seems somewhat paradoxical—claiming that Taylor’s mother both expected the best and would treat any result as though it were incredible. This indicates that Taylor’s mother valued effort and willingness to try more than any particular result.

“It was clear to me that the whole intention of bringing the Cherokees here was to get them to lie down and die without a fight.”

This sentence features hyperbolic language, exaggerating the negative qualities of the Oklahoma landscape, to humorously convey Taylor’s dislike of the place where she’s accidentally stranded. She makes a reference to the historical displacement of the Cherokee people from their homes in southeastern America to Oklahoma, an event known as the Trail of Tears.