How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Mama always said barefoot and pregnant was not my style. She knew.
It was in this frame of mind that I made it to my last year of high school without event. Believe me in those days the girls were dropping by the wayside like seeds off a poppyseed bun and you learned to look at every day as a prize. You'd made it that far. (1.9-10)
In Pittman County, teenage pregnancy is enough to derail a young woman's life for good. For most of Taylor's friends and classmates, getting pregnant means having to quit high school and get married—two circumstances that will trap a young woman in Pittman County forever, from Taylor's point of view.
Quote #2
It wasn't the kindest thing, maybe, but at one point I actually asked her, "Jolene, why Newt?" She was slumped down and rocking a little bit in the chair, holding her hurt shoulder and looking at her feet. She had these eyes that never seemed to open all the way.
What she said was "Why not, my daddy'd been calling me a slut practically since I was thirteen, so why the hell not? Newt was just who it happened to be. You know the way it is."
I told her I didn't know, because I didn't have a daddy. That I was lucky that way. She said yeah. (1.40-42)
Taylor's narration makes it clear that she used to care a lot about who her father was. As a child being raised by a single mother, she wanted to know more about the other side of the miracle of life. In this moment, though, Taylor realizes how lucky she's been to be raised by a caring mother, and to be spared from the kind of abusive father figure that so many of her friends and classmates have endured.
Quote #3
She said, "What do you do if I let the air out of the front tire?" Which she did. I said, "Easy, I put on the spare," which believe it or not that damned old car actually had.
Then she let out the back one too and said, "Now what?" Mama had evidently run into trouble along these lines, at some point in her life with Foster and an Oldsmobile, and she wanted to be sure I was prepared. (1.49-50)
Taylor's Mama takes a hands-on approach to preparing Taylor for the world. Rather than teaching Taylor to rely on others for help, Alice Greer shows her daughter that practical skills and self-reliance will see her through.
Quote #4
On the bus she decided it must have something to do with the fact that the pamphlets were put together by men, who in her opinion liked the looks of a mother and baby better than a pregnant woman. She was fairly sure about this. On the bus, for instance, several men would stand up to offer her a seat, but they wouldn't quite look at her. The high school boys didn't make remarks under their breath or try to rub up against her when the bus made sudden stops and turns. (2.17)
Lou Ann's pregnancy throws her everyday experiences of sexism and harassment into sharp relief. Being able to "relax this way on a crowded bus" without fear of being harassed and assaulted is a whole new experience for her—one that makes her feel like "it would not be so bad to go through your life as a pregnant lady" (1.17). Okay Lou Ann, you go ahead and live a few years with morning sickness every day and cravings for olives with chocolate sauce and let us know how it goes.
Quote #5
Lee Sing shook her head as she rang the cash register, and muttered something that sounded to Lou Ann like "New Year pig."
"Beg your pardon?" Lou Ann was a little afraid of Lee Sing, who often said peculiar things like this.
"Feeding a girl is like feeding the neighbor's New Year pig. All that work. In the end, it goes to some other family." (2.25-27)
What does Lee Sing mean when she says that raising a daughter is a form of work that only ever benefits "some other family"? Is this true for Ivy Logan and Lou Ann? What about Alice Greer and Taylor? What about Ms. Sing and Lee Sing herself? Is it less weird to compare girls to pigs when Taylor already named her foster daughter after a turtle?
Quote #6
I never could figure out why men thought they could impress a woman by making the world out to be such a big dangerous deal. I mean, we've got to live in the exact same world every damn day of the week, don't we? (3.22)
In Taylor's experience, no real purpose is served by men making women feel scared of the world. What conventional gender roles does that sort of fear help to maintain?
Quote #7
Mattie started up the machine, which made the front tires of Roger's Toyota spin around, and after a minute she lay down on one shoulder and adjusted something under the front. She didn't get that dirty, either. I had never seen a woman with this kind of know-how. It made me feel proud, somehow. In Pittman if a woman had tried to have her own tire store she would have been run out of business. That, or the talk would have made your ears curl up like those dried apricot things. (3.73)
Well lookie dat, a lady who knows how to work a truck. Taylor's Mama gave her a good example of a strong and independent woman, but Mattie impresses Taylor even more by seeming so at ease in a conventionally "masculine" role. Whereas Alice Greer cleaned houses for a living—conventionally "feminine" work—Mattie has the skill and confidence to run a business in automotive care. More than any other woman Taylor has known, Mattie shows her that women can do more than clean, nurse, serve, type, or file. And that's just in the workforce—in "real" life she can be plenty strong, too.
Quote #8
"What's so funny?" Lou Ann wanted to know. "I hope I can even fit into this dress. I should have tried it on first. I haven't worn it since before Dwayne Ray." I had noticed that Lou Ann measured many things in life, besides her figure, in terms of Before and After Dwayne Ray. (7.76)
Why does Taylor make note of the fact that Lou Ann measures her life in terms of "Before and After Dwayne Ray"? Is Lou Ann simply using a memorable event to help her keep track of time, or is Taylor suggesting that there's something self-damaging about the way Lou Ann defines herself in relation to her child?
Quote #9
"Did you get up in the middle of the night to do the feeding and diapering?"
"No," he said, smiling a little.
"I can't believe I'm even asking you that. Does it hurt you a lot to talk about Ismene?"
"At first, but not so much now. What helps me the most is to know her life is going on somewhere, with someone. To know she is growing up." (9.78-81)
After Esperanza attempts to commit suicide, Estevan tells Taylor about their daughter, Ismene, who was stolen by Guatemalan authorities. Their conversation reveals how differently Estevan and Esperanza have reacted to the loss: whereas Esperanza is still too distraught to cope, Estevan finds ways to go on. But does that have to do with gender roles, too? Given what he says about not doing the feeding and diapering, what can we infer about his and Esperanza's different relationships with their infant child?
Quote #10
The rest of us watched. Mr. Armistead stopped fidgeting and Mrs. Cleary's hands on her papers went still. Here were a mother and her daughter, nothing less. A mother and child—in a world that could barely be bothered with mothers and children—who were going to be taken apart. Everybody believed it. Possibly Turtle believed it. I did. (16.27)
When Taylor describes the world as one "that could barely be bothered with mothers and children," what does she mean? What earlier scenes or events from the novel might she have in mind? How does the supposed downplay of mother-daughter relationships fit in with the community Taylor has built for herself?