How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
She had dumped the peelings in a large crock, which like most everything in the house had been made for some other purpose. Now she stood before the dry sink, pumping water into a blue-and-white wash basin which she used for a saucepan. (1.2.39)
Pilate knows how to use things, and not just to use them as they were intended to be used, but she can make an object multitask. Instead of buying more things to clutter her house, she is very Zen and minimalist.
Quote #5
"…because the fact is that I am a small woman. I don’t mean little; I mean small, and I’m small because I was pressed small. I lived in a great big house that pressed me into a small package." (1.5.124)
Ruth’s spirit was crushed by the walls that held her in, by the affluence that surrounded her. She was never exposed to the outside world. Is this her fault? Can we blame her for her smallness? We sure wish we could have known what Ruth was like as a little girl, if she was ever presented with the opportunity to leave the sheltered-ness of her dad’s house.
Quote #6
Maybe it’s you I should be killing. Maybe then he will come to me and let me come to him. He is my home in this world. And then, aloud, "He is my home in this world."
"And I am his," said Ruth. (1.5.137)
Hagar and Pilate seem to think it’s possible for a human being to be your home. A home is a place where you sleep and eat and hang up pictures on the wall. A home is also sometimes a place where you watch Grey’s Anatomy on Thursday night in your slippers while eating Doritos. How can Milkman be that place? Ruth and Hagar seem to interpret a home as a place of refuge. Milkman, a place of refuge? Really?