Quote 37
The Indian child was a girl. A girl, poor thing. That fact had already burdened her life with a kind of misery I could not imagine. I thought I knew about every ugly thing that one person does to another, but I had never even thought about such things being done to a baby girl. (1.150)
The sexual abuse of children is one of the clearest targets of the novel's criticism. Taylor's horror at the abuse Turtle has suffered is what inspires her to keep the child for good.
Quote 38
Then the TV showed both Mattie and the interview man talking without sound, and another man's voice told us that the Immigration and Naturalization Service had returned two illegal aliens, a woman and her son, to their native El Salvador last week, and that Mattie "claimed" they had been taken into custody when they stepped off the plane in San Salvador and later were found dead in a ditch. I didn't like this man's tone. I had no idea how Mattie would know such things, but if she said it was so, it was. (7.106)
By getting to know, love, and trust Mattie, Taylor's eyes are opened to the unjust ways of the world. Even more than Taylor's Mama, Mattie provides the young woman with the kind of role-modeling it takes to make Taylor see that she can make a difference in the world. Even if she doesn't always understand how the news on TV works.
Quote 39
"What program did you want to see?" Edna asked. "I hope we haven't spoiled it by coming late?"
"That was it, we just saw it," I said, though it seemed ridiculous. Thirty seconds and it was all over. "She's a friend of ours," I explained.
"All I could make out was some kind of trouble with illegal aliens and dope peddlers," said Mrs. Parsons. (7.109-111)
Virgie Mae's reaction to the television interview is represented as a typically prejudiced response. Like Granny Logan, Virgie Mae's presence in the novel serves to highlight how prejudice and bigotry contribute to social injustice. Thanks a lot, Parsnip.