Summary
In March, Mattie, Lou Ann, Dwayne Ray, Taylor, and Turtle
go on a picnic near a beautiful creek. Two of Mattie’s friends,
Esperanza and Estevan, go with them. Esperanza and Estevan are a
married couple from Guatemala City. Estevan, who taught English
there, speaks better English than any of the American characters
do. Esperanza keeps staring at Turtle, and Estevan explains to Taylor
that Turtle reminds Esperanza of a child they knew in Guatemala.
Estevan and Taylor take a swim in the ice-cold creek water. On the
way home, they have to slam on the brakes to make way for a family
of quail. Taylor gets teary-eyed at the sight of the bird family.
Lou Ann thinks that Angel, instead of being touched, would have
wondered how many birds he could hit. Turtle reacts to the sudden
stop by doing a somersault and making her first sound: laughter.
Taylor feels relieved that Turtle’s first sound was a laugh; it
reassures Taylor that she is doing a decent job of raising Turtle,
for she feels that if Turtle were unhappy, she would not laugh.
A little later, as Turtle and Taylor help Mattie plant the garden,
Turtle says her first word: “bean.”
One night, Lou Ann tells Taylor about her fear that the
horrible things she imagines will happen in real life. She tells
Taylor that in high school she stood looking over a cliff and imagined
jumping. After imagining it, she became terrified that she actually
would jump. She says she used to worry that she would say something
rude in the middle of church. Taylor says she has felt similarly,
and Lou Ann feels relieved that someone understands her.
That night, Edna Poppy and Mrs. Virgie Parsons, two elderly neighbors,
come to Lou Ann’s house for dinner and to watch Mattie, who is scheduled
to appear on TV. Esperanza and Estevan also come over. On television,
Mattie talks about human rights, the United Nations, the concept
of asylum, and the violence visited upon immigrants who are forced
to return to their countries of origin. Edna and Virgie do not understand
Mattie’s remarks, and neither does Taylor.
Mrs. Parsons assumes that Turtle is Esperanza and Estevan’s child,
and calls her a naked wild Indian. Estevan, who works washing dishes
at a Chinese restaurant, has brought chopsticks to eat dinner with,
but Mrs. Parsons turns up her nose at them. She goes on to remark
that immigrants should “stay put in their own dirt” and not take
American jobs. Turtle tries to put a piece of pineapple in her mouth
with her chopsticks, but cannot. To make her feel better and to
chasten Mrs. Parsons, Estevan tells a story. He says that in hell, people
sit around a big table with plenty of food, starving to death because
they must eat with long-handled spoons and cannot manage to get
the spoons in their mouths. Heaven, he says, looks just the same:
same table, same food, same spoons. But in heaven, the people use
the long-handled spoons to feed one another. Estevan demonstrates
by feeding Turtle a new piece of pineapple.
Analysis
Turtle’s first sound coincides with the appearance of
the quail family, birds that suggest several symbolic meanings.
Throughout the novel, Kingsolver uses birds to symbolize Turtle.
In this instance, just as the baby birds come close to getting killed
but survive, Turtle miraculously survives her tortured babyhood.
Turtle’s little yelp might indicate her recognition of kindred spirits
in the birds. The birds also have a symbolic meaning for Taylor.
The car squeals to a stop to save the lives of the birds, just as
Taylor’s life stopped, or changed course, so she could save Turtle’s
life. Finally, the fact that the car stops for a family of quail
suggests that Taylor, Lou Ann, and the others are becoming more
and more like a family.
With Estevan, Kingsolver introduces a new kind of male
character in her novel. Estevan, unlike the other male characters,
is not selfish, abusive, irresponsible, or mean. Rather, he is kind,
intelligent, and responsible. Lou Ann draws our attention to this
difference when she notes that Angel would have tried to run over
the baby birds. In contrast to Angel’s cruelty, Estevan slams on
the brakes to save them.
