When loss is a Gain Barbara Kingsolver makes her characters change and grow through negative experience. The three main character’s loses gain them maturity. Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees reveals through the characters Lou Ann, Turtle, and Taylor, that everybody needs to experience some loss before they can mature. When Lou Ann loses Angel she gains independence. She comes across a problem with Angel, her lover, who requests a divorce and then leaves her behind. When he comes back begging for her acceptance, “Angel had changed his mind about the divorce.”(p.157), she dominates Angel and moves on by herself and with Taylor.