How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Emelina [...] was wonderful to watch. I guess I'd never really seen good mothering up close. (14.111)
Codi's pronouncements on watching Emelina be a mom are never very long, but they're important. Amid all these doctors and teachers and engineers and farmers, Kingsolver makes sure to give a shout-out to the people whose vocation is parenting, and Emelina is definitely one of those people.
Quote #8
I spent one whole morning watching a man walk up the beach selling shrimp door to door. He had a pole over his shoulders, with the bucket of shrimp hung on one side and on the other side a plastic jug of water. Every time he sold a kilo of shrimp he'd pour out that much water and drink it, to balance the load. I watched him all the way down the bay and though, I want to be like that. Not like the man selling shrimp. Like his machine. To give myself over to utility, with no waste. (9.73)
This shrimp guy ends up being something of a beacon for both Noline girls—Hallie lives in an agrarian community using her skills and trying not to break her one plate, and Codi aspires to be a wrench.
Quote #9
There had been a ridiculous photo in the local paper: the company president and a couple of managers at a ground-breaking ceremony, wearing ties, stepping delicately on shovels with their wing-tip shoes. These men had driven down from Phoenix for the morning, and they would drive right back. They all had broad salesmen's smiles. They presented the dam as some kind of community-improvement project[.] (14.130)
Bad shoes, bad smiles, bad politics, and they can't even shovel properly. Mining executives are the least manly of the men in this novel.