Turtle wants to live off of Taylor because she is the one who took time to love her and teach her a new life.
Taylor is so happy that Turtle starts talking. She feels like she has accomplished something with her and she is finally feeling a sense of relief. Taylor finally gets to declare Turtle her own daughter and it is the best thing that happened to both of them. Taylor tells Turtle, "That.
means you"re my kid, and I"m your mother, and nobody can say it isn't so" (Kingsolver 232). They have someone they both love and care about and someone to keep the growing and living a full life. In a somewhat similar situation, Kingsolver presents Estevan and Esperanza, two imigrants from Guatamala. They have had their only child taken from them and this brings in the situation of loss and love.
Estevan and Esperanza are struggling to survive in a country far different from their own. They have no choice but to run away from all their fears. If they would have stayed in Guatemala they would not be alive. "In Guatemala City the police use electricity for interrogation. They disconnect the receiver wire and tape the two ends to your body. To sensitive parts" (Kingsolver 134). They were tortured in the city and they had to move somewhere to get away from it all. They have had so much taken away from them: their daughter, Ismene, their home, their lives. Estevan states, "Ismene wasn't killed; she was taken" (Kingsolver 136). Their daughter was taken from them and used as black mail and if Estevan and Esperanza were to go after her, a group of innocent individuals would have been killed. Estevan was a school teacher back home, but now he is just a dishwasher. That is a big change in careers, especially in another country were you are not welcome. They almost try to hide their identity for fear of embarrassment that they are immigrants and also a fear of being deported back to their country.
