In Chapters 9 and 10, Taylor is confronted with issues concerning people who suffer through no fault of their own. At the beginning of Chapter 9, Estevan shows up on Taylor's doorstep to tell her that Esperanza has tried to commit suicide. Taylor notes that Estevan is deeply troubled, that "something inside this man [is] turning inside out." Nervous and not knowing how to respond, she warns Estevan that she will either "shove food at [him] or run on at the mouth." Trying to console Estevan (and herself), she tells Estevan about a boy she knew in high school who killed himself with electrical wires. He had been a misfit, not belonging to any of the "in" groups in school. Taylor also discusses a group of school kids condescendingly referred to as Nutters, a group of poor kids who picked walnuts to earn money, were not a popular group, but "had each other." By having Taylor discuss the many contentious social groups commonly found in high schools, Kingsolver emphasizes the interdependency between people and how necessary it is to be a member of a community.
Kingsolver presents much of the political background surrounding Estevan and Esperanza. Estevan tells a shocked Taylor about how he was tortured in Guatemala with the electrical wires in field telephones made in the United States. He also explains that Turtle looks like Ismene, Estevan and Esperanza's daughter, who was kidnapped during a raid on their village. Taylor finds it incredible that Estevan and Esperanza chose to save the lives of seventeen other people and leave Guatemala rather than risk their lives or the lives of others to find Ismene.
Faced with the atrocities that Estevan describes, Taylor cannot even imagine having to make such a horrific decision as Estevan and Esperanza have had to make. To think that she lives in the same world in which these atrocities take place is almost too much for her to bear. She had never paid attention to what was going on outside her own life. She now realizes that the things she'd tried her hardest to avoid — exploding tires and motherhood — have become blessings because she's met Mattie and has Turtle.
