When Loss Is GainBarbara Kingsolver makes her characters change and grow through negative experience. The defeats of the three main characters make them gain maturity. Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees reveals, through the characters Lou Ann, Turtle, and Taylor, that everyone needs to experience some loss before they can mature. When Lou Ann loses Angel, she gains independence. She runs into a problem with Angel, her lover, who asks for a divorce and then leaves her behind. When he returns begging for her acceptance, "Angel had changed his mind about divorce."; (p.157), she dominates Angel and moves on alone and with Taylor. «So this is the scoop, Angel's story. Now I see this guy from Red Hot Mama named C...