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| The protagonist of the novel, Taylor also narrates much of the story. She is a strong, gutsy woman, and her voice is both sassy and kind. Born and raised in rural Kentucky, she leaves to escape a small life in her hometown. Like her mother, she is proud of her Cherokee blood. |
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| The child given to Taylor in the middle of the Cherokee nation. She gets her name from her clinginess, which reminds Taylor of the mud turtles in Kentucky. She is so quiet and unengaged that many believe her to be dumb or retarded. This silence, however, is due to her history: although she is only three years old, she has already been physically and sexually abused. Although Taylor has spent her life avoiding pregnancy, she keeps her with her. |
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| A Kentuckian woman who settled in Tucson with her baby, Dwayne Ray. Her husband, Angel, has just walked out on her when the story begins, and Taylor and Turtle move in with her. She worries about the terrible accidents and horror stories she hears about, fearing for the safety of herself and her baby. More sensitive and more provincial than Taylor, she is nonetheless a survivor. |
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| The owner of Jesus Is Lord Used Tires and a mother figure for Taylor. She is wise and kind. She allows illegal immigrants to stay in her home, operating a kind of sanctuary. Her garden of beautiful vegetables and car parts is an inspiration for Turtle, whose first word is bean and who loves all kinds of vegetables. |
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| A Guatemalan refugee, he worked as an English teacher in Guatemala before he and his wife fled to the United States. He speaks beautiful English, and his kind ways inspire romantic feelings in Taylor. He lives in Mattie's building with his wife, Esperanza. He enlightens Taylor about the corruption of Central American governments. |
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| - Estevan's wife. Her grave demeanor is a reflection of her sorrowful past. Turtle's presence touches her because Turtle reminds her of the daughter she had to leave behind. |
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| Estevan and Esperanza's daughter, whom they left in Guatemala. She represents both the horror of political corruption and the desperation that can necessitate the abandonment of children. |
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| Lou Ann's husband, he is a Mexican man whom Lou Ann met when he worked in the rodeo in Kentucky. Angel's prosthetic leg—the result of a pickup truck accident—wounds his pride terribly and makes him unhappy. |
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| Taylor's mother, who lives in Kentucky. In Chapter One, Taylor says that her mother expects the best from her daughter and thinks that whatever Taylor does is wonderful. An encouraging, kind mother, she is the only part of Taylor's hometown that Taylor misses when she leaves. |
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| Lou Ann's son. He was born on New Year's Day. |
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| A classmate of Taylor's. He drops out before graduation to help his family on its farm and dies before Taylor leaves Pittman County. He represents what could have been Taylor's fate had she not had a wonderful mother and the determination to leave town. |
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| Lou Ann's grumpy neighbor, who sometimes baby-sits for the children. She makes insensitive remarks about immigrants. |
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| The blind woman who lives with Mrs. Parsons. She is much warmer than her roommate. |
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| “Bean,” Turtle's first word, symbolizes the promise that, like a dried-up seed that grows, a mistreated woman may thrive if given enough care. The bean trees, another name for the wisteria vine that Turtle spots in Dog Doo Park, symbolize transformation, a spot of life in the midst of barrenness. The bean trees have a symbiotic relationship with bugs called rhizobia, which move up and down the wisteria vine's roots and provide a network that transfers nutrients. This mutual aid symbolizes the help and love human beings give one another. The bean trees, like people, only thrive with a network of support. |
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| Ismene symbolizes all abandoned children, and the grief of all mothers forced to abandon them. Since we never meet her in the narrative and only hear about what she means to her parents, to Taylor, and to Turtle, Ismene is nothing but a symbol in the novel. Ismene reveals Kingsolver's commitment to writing as a means of social change, for Kingsolver portrays Ismene as representative of the pain inflicted by political corruption. |
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| Most often, birds are metaphorically associated with Turtle, the abandoned child with strong survival instincts. As Turtle's life changes, so do the birds that symbolize her. Turtle makes her first sound, a quiet laugh, when the car she is in stops to allow a mother quail and her babies to pass. Turtle is beginning to feel safe in the small family composed of herself and Taylor, and so the birds that elicit a happy sound from her are a mother quail and her chicks. Later, Taylor takes Turtle to the doctor and discovers the gravity of the abuse Turtle has suffered. As she makes this discovery, she sees a bird outside the doctor's window. The bird has made its nest in a cactus. Like the bird in the cactus, Turtle's life persists in spite of her painful surroundings in the past. |
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