"I Guess You Could Say We’re Family": Barbara Kingsolver’s Representation Of Multicultural American Society In The Bean Trees

Barbara Kingsolver, one of the most prominent contemporary American novelists,is famous for her concern about the social issues of the marginalized people againstmulticultural American society. By virtue of her rich life experiences in variouscultural surroundings, Kingsolver attaches much importance to the cultural collisionsamong different ethnicities, genders and customs. In her maiden work The Bean Trees(1988), she focuses on several untraditional families in which family members areconfronted with identity issues and make efforts to get rid of the haunting of theidentity crisis.From the postcolonial perspective, Kingsolver presents the minorities’ sufferingand injury from the cultural conflicts and stereotypes, and portrays their struggles toredefine the family values and locate themselves in the world of diversity. Tohighlight the theme, Kingsolver adopts the artistic writing techniques to help thereaders get a more profound understanding about the subject matter.The thesis consists of five parts. The introduction gives a brief statement ofKingsolver’s life and her major works, as well as the relationships betweenpostcolonialism and American multiculturalism. Also, there is a literature reviewwhich clarifies the informed research. The second chapter discusses the problems inthe multicultural American society reflected in untraditional families. The thirdchapter explores the author’s attempt to redefine the untraditional families, belittlingthe blood relationships and valuing the mutual understanding and support. The fourthchapter discusses the efforts to construct a harmonious space, including the characters’efforts to struggle with reality by various means and the literary construction of“together in difference”. Based on all these analyses this thesis concludes that thewriter’s representation of multicultural American society indicates her concern withissues of identity and her ideal to build a harmonious community in such a context.