Quote 43
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 44
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 45
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.