How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
And there were the words again. Divorce. Split. The Secret. How could he tell her what he knew? So he had remained silent, shook his head and continued to stare unseeing at the countryside, and his mother had gone back to driving only to speak to him one more time when they were close to Hampton. (1.43)
The problem with the Secret is that it doesn't just affect Brian's mom. It affects Brian, too, and it affects their relationship. His mom's secret has isolated Brian from her, and from his father, too. He's lonelier than ever, and none of it is his fault.
Quote #5
She nodded. "Just like a scout. My little scout." And there was the tenderness in her voice that she had when he was small, the tenderness that she had when he was small and sick, with a cold, and she put her hand on his forehead, and the burning came into his eyes again and he had turned away from her and looked out the window, forgotten the hatchet on his belt and so arrived at the plane with the hatchet still on his belt. (1.52)
Oof, this is one big bummer. See when his mom is nice to him, it's almost more painful than her cold silence. That's because her tenderness forces poor Brian to remember the happy times—to remember who his mom used to be. But now she's a deeply flawed woman with a Big Fat Secret. So not only has Brian lost the closeness he once felt to his parents, he has also lost his sense of who his parents are.
Quote #6
Oh, he thought, remembering a meal now—oh. It was the last Thanksgiving, last year, the last Thanksgiving they had as a family before his mother demanded the divorce and his father moved out in the following January. Brian already knew the Secret but did not know it would cause them to break up and thought it might work out, the Secret that his father still did not know but that he would try to tell him. When he saw him. (6.18)
Ah, Thanksgiving. The time of year when families can really enjoy each other's company. Or fight over the yams. In Brian's case, the holiday seems like mostly a good time, but it's all darkened by his mom's Secret. It's almost as if he blames himself for the breakup, which might sound ridiculous to us readers, who are more than willing to cut the kid a little slack. But for Brian, it's a dark cloud parked right between him and his papa.