Dancing with Wolves and The Bean Tree: A Book Comparison

Dancing With Wolves Dunbar and The Bean Tree Taylor both feel out of place in the world that they are living in. The only solution for Dunbar and Taylor see is to run away and start over. The Good thing is that in their Journey to find something new the find themselves and they find a home. The new found happiness also includes them finding the person that they love most. For Taylor her happiness is Turtle and for Dunbar his Happiness is the Indians he becomes friends with. The happiness they experience is not free, they have to sacrifice the safety of themselves and others to continue the happiness. Even though They sacrificed and put others in harm's way they are happy with the end result. They also make the people around them happier.

Both Dunbar and Taylor are in a position of their life that they cannot live with and need to get away from or they will go crazy. Dunbar is in the middle of a war and Taylor is in the middle if Indian country and wants to find her own home. In Dancing With Wolves Keven Kostner puts Dunbar exiled to a remote western Civil War outpost. He is at the mental state where he is ready to kill himself, "The strangeness of this life cannot be measured: in trying to produce my own death, I was elevated to the status of a living hero.". Luckily he fails at this and starts interacting with the world life around him and finds hope and a reason to live. What starts it is to socks, a wolf that finds a interest in Dunbar. At first Dunbar is afraid of it and sees it as a threat but over time two socks becomes a welcome friend. When Dunbar first sees the Indians he reaches for his gun and is scared for his life. At this point he is still under the influence that Indians are killers and that they are ruthless. Dunbar finally realizes the truth behind these people, "Nothing I have been told about these people is correct. They are not thieves or beggars. They are not the bogeymen they are made out to be. On the contrary, they are polite guest and I enjoy their humor.".

Taylor views her hometown as stifling and tiny, and she decides she wants to avoid the trap of an early pregnancy and make her escape to a more interesting life. Where she can get some more excitement in her life. She finally gets fed up with her home town and starts heading toward Arizona. On the way she gets given a gift that she did not want but had no choice but to except it. The Gift is Turtle, a young Indian girl that is dumped on her in the middle of the night. Turtle got her name from the way she was given to Taylor. Turtle was wrapped up in many blankets and made her look like a turtle. "The Childs Hands constantly caught my fingers and wouldn't let go. "you Little booger," I said, Shaking my finger and the little fist. "you're like a mud turtle. If a mud turtle bites you, it won't let go till it thunders." Taylor decided that she couldn't leave the kid on the street so she takes her in and none legally takes turtle in as her own child.

The love shown in both Dancing With Wolves and The Bean Tree and dictates how these stories play out. Both Dunbar and Taylor risk everything they have to be with their loved ones. Dunbar finds his wife in the last place he thought he would even find a friend. He meets a white Indian girl that was in morning from losing her husband. Dunbar quickly develops feelings for her and loves being around her. He eventually asks her to marry him and they do get married. They also try to get a kid right away and don't wait.

Taylor is very protective of Turtle and does not like it when Turtle plays with other ladies and calls them ma, even though Turtle calls everyone Ma'. When Taylor learns that Turtle was hurt by some mysterious person in the park she can't even look at her because of all the feeling going through her. After that point Taylor does not like Turtle being out of her sight at all. Taylor loves Turtle and would do anything to make Turtle her legal daughter.

The sacrifices that Taylor and Dunbar make are life changing. Dunbar risks his life multiple times and Taylor risks other peoples life's to get Turtle as her daughter. Dunbar gets taken captive by his own government and gets treated like a dog. Luckily Dunbar's Indian friends come and attack the whites to get Dunbar free. Once they get him back they travel into the mountains. It is then that Dunbar realizes that he must leave his Indian friends or they will find him and kill his friends. With him knowing this he packs up with his new wife and leaves the tribe much to all their disapproval. Dunbar did help the Indians defeat the opposing attacking tribe and kill their leader. It is after this that Dunbar knows he must leave his friends behind and leave them to save them.

Taylor finds out that Turtles parents are dead and that there is a way to adopt Turtle. Taylot gets her to friend to dress up as poor Indians that want to give their child to Taylor to take care of her. They want turtle to have a good life. If the adoption people find out that Taylors two friends are faking both of them can go to jail along with Taylor. Lucky everything works to plan and Taylor gets Turtle as her legal daughter. Taylor was lucky that she had good friends that would risk the future just to have Turtle be Taylors daughter. Taylor is also risking getting in big trouble everyday she has Turtle. Turtle is not legally anyone's with no family being left and Taylor is basically kidnapping the child.

Both Dunbar and Taylor needed to take risks to get what they wanted and needed. They were able to take the risks and make all the worrying and troubles worth it in the end. Taylor gets Turtle as a daughter and Dunbar saves the Indians from the white people and rides away with his new wife. Without the risk Turtle would have been taken away from Taylor would never of seen her again. With Dunbar the Indian tribe would have been killed and his newly wedded wife would also been killed. There life's would be empty and not worth living if they took no risks. I think you can learn to not just sit back and think everything is going to be handed to you. You need to get out there and take the chances that are presented to you and capitalize on them.