How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
I was thinking of something my father once said to my mother, "We'll fill the house up with children! We'll fill it right up to the brim!" But they hadn't filled it up. It was just me and them, and then it was just me and my father. (9.21)
It seems like one of Sal's most painful memories is the memory of her mother giving birth prematurely to her baby sister and losing the baby. Because this is such a hard memory for Sal to process, she tries to remember everything leading up to and following this memory so she can understand it better. At first glance, this memory of her father talking about children is a happy one. However, when we learn more with Sal's help, we realize that it's actually very sad.
Quote #5
What I started doing was remembering the day before my mother left. I did not know it was to be her last day home. Several times that day, my mother asked me if I wanted to walk up in the fields with her. It was drizzling outside, and I was cleaning out my desk, and I just did not feel like going. "Maybe later," I kept saying. When she asked me for about the tenth time, I said, "No! I don't want to go. Why do you keep asking me?" I don't know why I did that. (17.16)
Why do you think Sal kept refusing to go on a walk with her mom? Why is she kind of mean to her mom here? Do you think she has any idea that something is up?
Quote #6
I didn't mean anything by it, but that was one of the last memories she had of me, and I wished I could take it back. (17.16)
Have you heard of that phrase, "hindsight is 20/20"? It means that when we look back on a moment in the past, we have a perfect view of what was going on at that moment and what that moment will lead to. But this is only because we've lived out the past already; at the time, we couldn't have seen any of these things. Sal's hindsight is 20/20 in this moment, because she deeply regrets not treating her mother better, and wishes she had.