How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"I made my life, the same way it looks like you're gonna make yours—out of pride and stubbornness and too much anger. You better think hard, Ruth Anne, about what you want and who you're mad at. You better think hard." (18.81)
We could point to a lot of things that Bone is well within reason to be mad about. But as Raylene points out, the question she needs to ask herself in order to grow is where that anger is going to get her in the end.
Quote #8
At the hospital when they had left me alone in the bathroom for a minute, I had looked at myself in the mirror and known I was a different person. Older, meaner, rawboned, crazy, and hateful. I was full of hate. I had spit on the glass, spit on my life, not caring anymore who I was or what I would be. I had wanted to laugh at everyone, Raylene and the nurses, all of them watching me like some fragile piece of glass ready to shatter around boiling water. I was boiling inside. I was cooking away. I was who I was going to be, and she was a terrible person. (22.12)
This reminds us of what Ruth says to Anney after Lyle dies: it's hard to imagine that there will be any other event in Bone's life that will hit her as hard. But Bone thinks that means that she will stay stuck that way forever. Is that what it means?
Quote #9
The child I had been was gone with the child she had been. We were new people, and we didn't know each other anymore. (22.45)
Well, this sounds pretty coming-of-age-y, doesn't it? Even though we say it all the time, what exactly does it mean to no longer be a child? Also, why does growing up mean becoming a different person to the people around you?