How we cite our quotes: (Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Such an old woman come into town driving an old worn-out horse or she comes afoot carrying a basket. (1.1)
In Mrs. Grimes' case, she doesn't even have a horse because Jake and their son took it on one of their trademark low-stakes heists. This ends up having significant consequences.
Quote #2
Once one of my brothers got a whole cow's liver at the slaughter-house near the fairgrounds in our town. We had it until we were sick of it. It never cost a cent (1.2)
The narrator can relate to the Grimeses' poverty. Although we would never say no to a nice plate of tasty liver, we can understand how the monotony of it could drive you insane.
Quote #3
Now and then, when a horse turned up missing, the man had also disappeared. No one ever caught him. (1.6)
Jake has turned to crime to pay the bills. This ends up creating a Catch-22: he steals because he can't find work, but he can't find work because everyone knows that he's a thief.
Quote #4
His father, Jon Grimes, had owned a sawmill when the country was new, and had made money. Then he got to drinking and running after women (1.7)
Like father, like son. Here, we see how poverty can be cyclical: Jake's only example for being a man is his father, who wasted his money time and time again. Is it any surprise that Jake ends up doing the same?
Quote #5
There were very few orphan homes then. They were legally bound into some home. It was a matter of pure luck how it came out (1.14)
In the period depicted, orphans are given zero opportunities. Instead, they're forced to become servants and work their butts off with no hope for reward. That's a tough hand to be dealt.
Quote #6
He went into debt for a threshing outfit and ran it for several years, but it did not pay. People did not trust him (2.5)
Jake tried to straighten his life out at one point, but failed. Does this make you sympathize with him more? Less? Or do you still resent him for taking his anger out on his poor wife?
Quote #7
She had a few chickens of her own and had to kill one of them in a hurry. When they were all killed she wouldn't have any eggs to sell when she went to town, and then what would she do? (2.5)
This sums things up rather nicely. The Grimes family is stuck in a vicious cycle, forced to do desperate things to survive. But what happens when they inevitably having nothing left?
Quote #8
If there wasn't anything to eat in the house when they came home the old man gave his old woman a cut over the head (2.5)
We're not going to pretend that Jake would've been the nicest guy on the planet if he had some extra cash, but he'd probably be less inclined to stick a freakin' blade in his wife's head.
Quote #9
When it was Winter she had to gather sticks of wood for her fire, had to try to keep the stock fed with very little grain (2.9)
Can you imagine having to get through a brutal Midwestern Winter like this? The fact that she can only find "sticks" emphasizes how rough of a situation she finds herself in.
Quote #10
They were going to trade horses, get a little money if they could. They might come home drunk. It would be well to have something in the house when they came back (3.1)
Question: do they come home drunk to celebrate a good deal or to drown the sorrows of a bad one? Regardless, Mrs. Grimes is once again asked to sacrifice her own well-being to keep her family relatively sane.
Quote #11
The butcher in town, having been suddenly overcome with a feeling of pity, had loaded her grain bag heavily. (3.19)
At least someone can empathize with the poor woman. We can't help but wonder, however, whether this heavy pack contributed to Mrs. Grimes' demise. Was it too heavy for her to carry? Had she become so used to poverty that she couldn't handle an abundance of goods?