How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Smallpox is tricky," Miss Mary Finch said to me when Momma died. "There's no telling who it'll take." The pox had left Ruth and me with scars like tiny stars scattered on our skin. It took Momma home to Our Maker. (1.17)
If you don't know what smallpox is, that's a good thing. It means that we've advanced so far in medical science that it's not really something we deal with today. Back then, though, getting sickness of any kind was a matter of life and death. Here Isabel seems to compare the relatively minor effects of the disease on her and her sister to the suffering that led her mother to death, weighing the fact that it chose to take Momma and not them.
Quote #2
My cheek burned, but I fought back the hot tears and tried to swallow the lump in my throat. No one had ever slapped my face like that, not once in my whole life. Better me than Ruth, better me than Ruth. (5.74)
Not all of Isabel's suffering is inflicted on her without consent—some of it she deliberately chooses in order to protect her sister. When she takes the blame for Ruth's laughter at the docks, she knows what she's doing and is willing to take the punishment that comes, but she still feels pain and shock at Madam's brutality. Nonetheless, she's comforted by the fact that Ruth is safe from her suffering.
Quote #3
I saved the cobwebs, twisting them around a rage and storing them by our pallet in the cellar. Cobwebs were handy when a person had a bloody cut. (8.1)
Who here likes spiders? Yeah, that's what we thought. Now imagine living in a basement in a world without Band-Aids and having to scrunch up their webs to put on bloody wounds. It's a small detail, but reveals Isabel's unflinching resourcefulness in dealing with pain.