How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Trish fiddled with her bra strap. "Hallie always would just up and do anything under the blue sky," she said.
"You're right," I told Trish. "I wish I were that brave. I'd be scared to death to be where she is."
"Well, you know, we can't all be the hero," she said, jutting her lower jaw to blow smoke up toward the olive branches. (7.50)
Kingsolver seems to allow herself one stereotype per book. Here, everyone, meet Trish, the chain-smoking ex-cheerleader who's still the worst.
Quote #2
Emelina looked up with enormous eyes, as if I were one of the saints in the wall. Our Lady of Blocked Windpipes. She wiped tears off her chin with the back of her hand.
"It's no big deal," I said.
It really wasn't. I'd just done what I knew how to do. (11.100-102)
Because it would have really super sucked if Codi had just sat back and been like, nah, only lame people who wear saddle shoes administer the baby Heimlich.
Quote #3
"My husband used to be a crane operator when the mine was running," shouted a woman in the back row. "He would know how to fix up them bulldozers from hell to breakfast."
"My husband was a dynamite man," volunteered another woman. "That would be quicker."
"Excuse me, but your husbands won't put Chinese arithmetic past no bulldozers," said Viola. Mrs. Crane Operator and Mrs. Dynamite seemed unperturbed, but Viola added thoughtfully,
"No offense. Mine would be just as lazy, except he's dead."
"Mrs. Galvez nodded. "Well, that's the truth. My husband says the same thing, "The lawyers will fix it up, honey.' If the men were any use they'd be here tonight instead of home watching the football game." (16.42-5)
Basically, Viola is using some colorfully racist American idiom to suggest that their husbands' male privilege makes it impossible for them to recognize the stakes in this fight. Part of what's interesting here is Kingsolver's support for violent action against the mine's property—even if it's not what they eventually do. There's also some tractor disabling going on down in Nicaragua—but there, it's the U.S.-backed bad guys doing it.