Kingsolver now shifts the point of view back to the first person and writes from Taylor's perspective. Taylor and the little girl, whom she names Turtle because the girl holds onto Taylor like a mud turtle, are on the road again, and Taylor is in "hog heaven." After staying at the Broken Arrow Motor Lodge through the Christmas holidays, Taylor decided to leave because her "eyes had started to hurt in Oklahoma from all that flat land." She's made some money working as a chambermaid while old Mrs. Hoge baby-sat Turtle.
To Taylor's discomfort, Mrs. Hoge insinuates that Turtle is retarded, but Taylor defends Turtle, as any committed, protective mother would, maintaining that Turtle has "her own ways of doing things." After Taylor and Turtle leave the Broken Arrow and Mrs. Hoge, the tone of the novel becomes more light and cheerful as Taylor and Turtle leave Oklahoma and eventually enter Arizona.
Kingsolver describes the Arizona desert landscape at sunrise by creating humorous images. "Puffy-looking rocks" are shaped like "roundish" people and animals, and "clouds are pink and fat and hilarious-looking, like the hippo ballerinas in a Disney movie." Because Taylor truly enjoys the physical environment of Arizona, she decides that she and Turtle will live there. Here, note how different environments affect Taylor throughout the novel. In rural Kentucky, she grew discouraged about living her entire life threatened by getting pregnant by men like Newt Hardbine (a newt is a type of salamander — certainly not a positive image of men). In Oklahoma, Taylor grows weary of the never-ending landscape, symbolic of her wandering and meandering without something to tie her to the world. And in Arizona, with its natural beauty and peaceful colors, Taylor feels more at home.
