It now becomes clear to us that Mattie not only works for immigrants' rights, she hides illegal immigrants in her house. The novel takes a political stance, portraying Mattie's work as good and heroic. Edna and Virgie do not understand Mattie's remarks, perhaps deliberately: Virgie harbors very conservative views on immigrants, and twists Mattie's ideas in order to hear what she wants to hear. Neither does Taylor fully comprehend what Mattie says, a failure that …showed first 75 words of 553 total…

…showed last 75 words of 553 total…to do. Kingsolver portrays Ivy Logan and Granny Logan as women uncomfortable out of their habitat in Tug Fork, Kentucky, and suspicious of the changes that Tucson has brought to Lou Ann. They are unerringly provincial, complaining about the Hispanic-American Angel as being a "heathen" Mexican, revealing their suspicions about both Hispanics and Catholics. They also suspect that Lou Ann has changed into a person who Œputs on airs' because of her relatively metropolitan lifestyle.