How we cite our quotes: (Section.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Far from home, living in a white woman's basement, that letter made me feel buried, too. I opened the envelope and read the words. (1.2.2)
These are Albertine's reflections about the moment she learned that her Aunt June had died. Her grief is so intense that she feels buried herself.
Quote #2
"My boots are filling," he says. He says this in a normal voice, like he just noticed and he doesn't know what to think of it. Then he's gone. A branch comes by. Another branch. And I go in. (10.1.68-69)
This is Lyman Lamartine's description of the moment his brother Henry drowned. Henry had jumped in the river and never reemerged. It's left ambiguous whether it was a suicide, but it certainly appears that his act was self-destructive…
Quote #3
But here's the factor of decision: he wasn't choking on the heart alone. There was more to it than that. It was other things that choked him as well. It didn't seem like he wanted to struggle or fight. Death came and tapped his chest, so he went just like that. (13.1.126)
Lipsha is reflecting here on Nector's death. In his view, it wasn't just that Nector had the bad luck to choke on a turkey heart (with some help from Marie's wallop, of course)—he believes that Nector was probably so overloaded or "choked" with other stuff that he just didn't fight super hard when death came for him.