How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"Esperanza and I knew the names of twenty other union members," he said. "The teachers' union did not have open meetings. We worked in cells, and communicated by message. Most people knew only four other members by name. This is what I am saying. In Guatemala, you are careful. If you want to change something, you can find yourself dead. This was not the—what do you call? The P.T.A." (9.49)
Ah, we love a good joke at the expense of the P.T.A. But hey: this is serious stuff in the union Estevan's on about. While we're at it, Barbara Kingsolver could have had Estevan be involved in another kind of union, but she chose a teacher's union specifically. Why?
Quote #8
"I can't even begin to think about a world where people have to make choices like that."
"You live in that world," he said quietly, and I knew this, but I didn't want to. I started to cry then, just tears streaming out all over and no stopping them. Estevan put his arm around me and I sobbed against his shoulder. The dam had really broken. (9.56-57)
By the end of her conversation with Estevan, Taylor has unconsciously accepted his point. Although there are some things she knows about injustice, there are other things that she doesn't want to know. In Estevan's view, this desire not to know plays a big role in allowing atrocities to continue.
Quote #9
"What helps me the most is to know her life is going on somewhere, with someone. To know she is growing up."
"Sure," I said, but I knew there was another side to this, too. Where she was growing up, what they would raise her to be. I thought of Turtle being raised by Virgie Mae Parsons, learning to look down her nose and wear little hats, and I then I got it mixed up with police uniforms. (9.81-82)
Although Estevan takes some comfort from knowing that his daughter, Ismene, is alive and growing up somewhere, Taylor worries about the kind of moral education Ismene will receive. If she is being raised by the same kinds of people who would abduct her in the first place, what kind of person will they teach her to be? And imaginining Lil' Turtle Parsnip is just too much for her to handle. And we can't blame her, with a name like that.