How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
She was born and raised in France, a point of superiority to her way of thinking that made it hard for all of us, except Robby and Hoyt, to do anything but tolerate her. (5.5)
Aunt Agnès is the reason that Robby and Pearl are always using French words and thinking about how to translate particular phases. We'd also like to point out that Agnès thinks everything French is far superior to anything American.
Quote #2
"Where are you from?" Hoyt practically shouted in Spanish to the old vaquero in the back. The truck was loud with the windows down, sunshine and wind whipping us all, the motor roaring. But it wasn't just that. Uncle Hoyt, like just about everyone else, spoke louder in a foreign language, and I think he still thought Amiel was deaf. (5.27)
What is up with people talking slower and louder when talking to someone who doesn't share their language? Props to Pearl for pointing out how unnecessary this really is. You can communicate with people without bursting their eardrums no matter how much language is shared between you.
Quote #3
It was a thing we started doing back when our mothers got this idea that Robby and I should speak to each other exclusively in French, rendering me totally fluent and chic by, like, second grade and keeping Robby from the dreadful fate of growing up American. Robby was much better at Franglish than I was and could generally do more than "le" the heck out of things, but he wasn't in the mood. (7.4)
Using "le" in everything is one way for Robby and Pearl to mock the French way of speaking. They do this almost in response to Agnès's condescension. By taking part of her language (le) and mocking it, Pearl and Robby show how the nuts and bolts of language sound quite silly when taking out of context.
Quote #4
I guess there's not an easy way to mime "You are of two worlds," which is what Gallo said after he compared me to a cat. In the beginning, what I would do is memorize the sound of a Spanish phrase, and then I'd get someone at school to translate. Later, I learned words and grammar. (9.11)
Amiel is tough to talk to not only because he speaks a different language, but also because he can't speak very much to begin with. Pearl's experience in dutifully translating each word and phrase to write to him shows us just how hard it is to have a conversation with someone via letter in a foreign language. It's not for the faint of heart.
Quote #5
He was also holding my letter in his back pocket and knowing exactly one more language than I thought he knew. English. (20.8)
When Pearl and Amiel start exchanging notes, they are worried someone will find them out. After all, it's not like everyone's dropping notes in the woods for their friends to find all the time. Pearl and Amiel's unusual form of communication points draws attention to how tricky it is in general for them to communicate with each other.
Quote #6
"Is that another proverb?" I asked. Agnès was full of them. You'd think the French spoke in nothing but taglines for Aesop's fables. My favorite was the bizarre "You cannot teach old monkeys to make faces." (23.13)
Quote #7
I told my mother I had more shifts at Subway than I really did so I could be at the river when I wasn't at work, waiting for Amiel to draw letters on the trembling skin of my palm. More often, though, he wrote what he had to say on the dirt or answered me, if the weather wasn't too hot and dry, in his raspy voice. (38.1)
Amiel shares his thoughts with Pearl by writing in the sand, which makes for very slow communication. (And you thought texting lagged.) At first, Amiel is reluctant to share stuff with Pearl, specifically because of the length it takes to write out each word, but Pearl doesn't mind. She'd rather spend more time with him anyhow.
Quote #8
Amiel drew my arm back toward us and with his index finger began to trace letters on my forearm, his fingers as cold as rain. I felt the letters he was making on my skin, felt them all the way to the backs of my knees, but I was powerless to read them. The lines might have been hieroglyphics or flying birds. My arm trembled with each stroke until he reached the end of what he was writing. (39.26)
As Amiel and Pearl get to know each other, they whisper and draw out words to communicate. It's romantic in a touchy-feely way. Check out the way she describes him writing on her hand as making her "tremble." She loves getting to know him, sure, but we think she loves him touching her hands even more.
Quote #9
I looked at the postcard several times before it occurred to me that in addition to pretending I didn't exist, he must have decided never to say or write my name. (58.29)
Robby communicates without speaking directly to Pearl, but it's not romantic and meaningful like it is between her and Amiel. In fact, it's out of anger and spite that Robby steers clear of her. Since he blames Pearl for his dad's death, he doesn't want to keep talking to her, but gets his point across to her all the same.
Quote #10
By September, it will be enough for a Spanish immersion program at an institute two hours from a town that has a bus to San Ygnacio, Guanajuato. I'll go from San Miguel to Silao and from there to the dirt road a former employee of my uncle's has described to me as muy, muy larga and lined on one side with guayaba trees. (59.1)
In the end, Pearl is more interested in learning about Amiel's world than she is staying in her own. Even though Amiel knows English, she wants to learn Spanish so she can track him down in Mexico. There's just one problem, though: We're not sure it will be any easier communicating with Amiel now that she knows his mother tongue.