Taylor comes home from her job at Mattie's one evening and is upset because it is as if she and Turtle and Lou Ann and Dwayne Ray have become a family: She goes to work while Lou Ann stays home and cooks, cleans, and takes care of the children. Taylor's reaction reveals her independence but also shows that she still has some maturing to do; through Turtle, she is still learning how to open up to and care for other people. Taylor voices her feelings, and naturally, Lou Ann feels bad and cries. She wants to please Taylor because she doesn't want Taylor to abandon her like Angel did. Kingsolver's feminist views and humor become more apparent as Taylor tells Lou Ann her theory about not staying with one man for an entire lifetime. Taylor compares men to the flapper ball that shuts off the water in a toilet tank. Taylor had memorized a line from a flapper ball package that read, "Parts are included for all installations, but no installation requires all of the parts." Taylor doesn't think "there's an installation out there that could use all of [her] parts." She also shows Lou Ann a Valentine card that she bought for her mother. On the outside, the card reads, "Here's hoping you'll soon have something big and strong around the house to open those tight jar lids." On the inside is a picture of a pipe wrench. Taylor doesn't dislike men; her attitude is one of indifference — a major theme in the novel. Taylor and Lou Ann laugh, and Lou Ann is in disbelief as she realizes that Taylor has stayed up half the night to talk out a problem with her.
Throughout Chapters 5 and 6, Kingsolver continues to use her extensive background in biology and natural history to create images and symbols. For example, she compares the railroad system in Tucson to a hardened artery in a human body. At one time, the railroad probably brought new life to the city "like a blood vessel carrying platelets to circulate through the lungs." After a frost kills Mattie's purple beans, Mattie tells Taylor, "That's the cycle of life . . . the old has to pass on before the new can come around."
The tone at the conclusion of Chapter 6 is happy. Taylor and Lou Ann survive their first "talk" and realize that they have become friends.
