The Bean Trees: Chapters 7–8

by Barbara Kingsolver
Kingsolver's first novel tells the story of Taylor Greer, who leaves Kentucky and tries to make a life for herself and an orphaned Native American girl in Tucson, Arizona.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–3, Chapters 4–6, Chapters 7–8, Chapters 9–12, Chapters 13–17

Here is a link to our lists for The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. pandemonium
    a state of extreme confusion and disorder
    I suppose we could have honked and waved and it wouldn't have raised any more pandemonium than this poor mother already had to deal with, but instead we held perfectly still.
  2. berate
    censure severely or angrily
    Eventually Lou Ann gave up on berating her hair and set up the ironing board in the kitchen.
  3. picayune
    small and of little importance
    Before, it had seemed picayune to get all bent out of shape organizing the household chores.
  4. hypochondriac
    suffering from anxiety about imaginary symptoms and ailments
    She seemed to have a one-track vocabulary, like Lou Ann’s hypochondriac mother-in-law, though fortunately Turtle's ran to vegetables instead of diseases.
  5. invocation
    a prayer asking God's help as part of a religious service
    When I was a little girl I would get afraid in church, during the invocation or some other time when it got real quiet...
  6. wiry
    lean but strong
    She had bobbed, snowy hair and sturdy, wiry arms and was dressed entirely in red, all the way down to her perky patent-leather shoes.
  7. signatory
    one who writes his or her name on and is bound by a document
    Signatory to the United Nations something-something on human rights, Mattie was saying, and that means we have a legal obligation to take in people whose lives are in danger.
  8. perturbed
    thrown into a state of agitated confusion
    But Estevan didn’t seem perturbed, and I realized he must hear this kind of thing every day of his life.
  9. yahoo
    a person who is not intelligent or interested in culture
    “I always thought I'd get Mama out here to live. She didn't even consult me, just ups and decides to marry this paint-and-body yahoo.”
  10. mange
    a skin disease causing inflammation, itching, and hair loss
    Mostly it put me in mind of an animal with the mange.
  11. geriatric
    of or relating to the aged
    From a great distance you could have taken them for some wacked-out geriatric couple marching down the aisle in someone’s sick idea of a garden wedding.
  12. compulsion
    an irrational need to perform trivial or repetitive actions
    I thought of Lou Ann’s compulsions in church.
  13. gumption
    fortitude and determination
    I had thought of asking Terry, the red-haired doctor on the bicycle, but couldn't quite get up the gumption.
  14. waiver
    a formal written statement of relinquishment
    She handed me a new form with far fewer questions on it. “Did you bring in your DES medical and waiver forms?”
  15. incarnate
    invested with a bodily form especially of a human body
    Her head had bobbed up like an apple on a string, and her eyes fixed on me as if she had seen the Lord incarnate.
Created on Tue Dec 04 11:01:45 EST 2018 (updated Tue Aug 05 13:27:50 EDT 2025)

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