A Challenge of Traditional ThinkingA Look at “Snapping Beans”

A Challenge of Traditional Thinking, a Look at “Snapping Beans”
Troy Smith
Comp 1020 Section 34
Dr. Gwin
February 27, 2003
Lisa Parker uses Setting, Imagery, Symbolism, and Prosody to explore a young person’s transition into college life and the contrast between his or her new point of view and the traditional view of his or her grandmother.
“I was home . . . from the North” (700-701) suggests the setting is in the South. This suggests that the perception of the world to the grandmother’s southern upbringing differ from what her grandchild has been exposed to in the college’s teachings of the North. The setting also is at a grandmother’s house during summer. Grandma’s house represents a history or grass roots setting. The protagonist probably learned much of her first impressions and ideas of the world and his or her surroundings at this very house. The new experiences at school have interjected a lot of mixed and different views of the world to the protagonist. Summer represents a transmission into adult hood for the protagonist. Summer is a time when all things are in bloom and at full potential.
The act of snapping beans itself suggests a type of preparation or change. The protagonist is becoming an adult and challenging all the traditional teaching of his or her grandmother and is finding more unique ways of thinking “and being happy despite i...