Quote 40
I didn't want to believe the world could be so unjust. But of course it was right there in front of my nose. If the truth was a snake it would have bitten me a long time ago. It would have had me for dinner. (11.72)
As Taylor begins to understand more about the injustices of the world, the knowledge is overwhelming. Coming to terms with her inability to change the world as one single, solitary human being is one of the most important steps she makes in the novel; learning to do whatever she can is another.
Quote 41
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 42
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.