What credit can Hughes Walter and Taylor's mother take for Taylor being the one to get away?

The first chapter introduces one of the novel’s central ideas: the importance of motherhood. Kingsolver contrasts the effect of Alice Greer’s good parenting with that of Mr. Hardbine’s and Mr. Shanks’s bad parenting, suggesting that parents determine their children’s destinies. Because Alice constantly tells Taylor how wonderful and smart she is, Taylor becomes wonderful and smart. Because Mr. Hardbine abuses his son, his son kills himself. Because Mr. Shanks tells Jolene she is a slut, Jolene gets pregnant. Jolene acknowledges the direct effect of parents’ words on children’s behavior when she says, “[M]y daddy’d been calling me a slut practically since I was thirteen, so why the hell not? Newt was just who it happened to be.”

The first chapter introduces one of the novel’s central ideas: the importance of motherhood. Kingsolver contrasts the effect of Alice Greer’s good parenting with that of Mr. Hardbine’s and Mr. Shanks’s bad parenting, suggesting that parents determine their children’s destinies. Because Alice constantly tells Taylor how wonderful and smart she is, Taylor becomes wonderful and smart. Because Mr. Hardbine abuses his son, his son kills himself. Because Mr. Shanks tells Jolene she is a slut, Jolene gets pregnant. Jolene acknowledges the direct effect of parents’ words on children’s behavior when she says, “[M]y daddy’d been calling me a slut practically since I was thirteen, so why the hell not? Newt was just who it happened to be.”