For many, success is something strived for throughout one’s lifetime. Success is a feeling of accomplishment when we have achieved our goals. However, We do need others to succeed because collected efforts have more successful results than individual efforts do. Through Taylor helping Estevan and Esperanza, and vice versa in The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, as well as Jack and Ralph’s power being assisted by the boys on the island in Lord of the Flies by William Golding, we can see that more things can be accomplished with the help of others.
First, Barbara Kingsolver shows Taylor and Turtle’s close relationship with Estevan and Esperanza throughout her novel, The Bean Trees, as they help each other reach their desired goals. Estevan and Esperanza, husband and wife, are illegal immigrants of the United States and must find a way to not get caught by the government, but also to not go back to Guatemala, where they would be severely punished for their escape. Estevan and Esperanza struggle , until they seek the help of Taylor Greer, who drives them across several states in the country in order to help them seek shelter as refugees. In return, when Taylor wants to adopt Turtle, a child with no records of where her actual parents are, social workers do not grant her the child becuase there is no consent of the former parents. Estevan and Esperanza help by acting like Turtle’s parents, then granting Taylor the right to adopt Turtle. With Estevan and Esperanza helping Taylor and Turtle, and vice versa, they were all able to succeed in things that they are not able to do themselves.
Next, Lord of the Flies by William Golding shows that success will favor whichever side has more efforts. The power of two opposing leaders of the island, Jack and Ralph, rise and fall in relation to the amount help and support from the rest of the boys. In the beginning of the book, Ralph led the boys on the island, and his tribe thrived with all their support. At that time, Jack didn’t even have a tribe. All the boys supported Ralph’s tribe, making it successful. Toward the middle of the book, Jack starts his own tribe, and the boys migrate towards Jack’s tribe, diminishing the amount of power Ralph had. By the end of the book, all the boys had joined Jack’s successful, thriving tribe, leaving Ralph with nobody. Thus, the amount of success is in correlation to the amount of help we get from others.
With multiple efforts, the successful results multiply as well.The Bean Trees shows the beneficial symbiotic relationship between Taylor, Turtle, Estevan, and Esperanza, as they all help each other to achieve their goals, while Lord of the Flies shows the correlation of the success of the tribe to the amount of efforts behind it. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver and Lord of the Flies by William Golding both show that we need others to succeed because a greater amount of efforts will have greater results than individual efforts. As often mentioned, “we’re all in this together.”
