How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
What Dicey was used to, she realized, was things being simple, like a song. You sang the words and the melody straight through. That was the way she had brought her family down here to Crisfield, singing straight through. (1.165)
Now that's perseverance. People are always talking about how music and song brings people solace in tough times, and that definitely seems true for Dicey and co. Plus, singing is also what's kept them together so far.
Quote #2
Gram probably knew something about carrying sorrow around. However she acted, Dicey knew Gram had cared about her three children who all left her and never came back. (1.166)
The thought of an old woman carrying sorrow like she carried her disappeared children is pretty heartbreaking, but Gram’s obviously the source of Dicey’s toughness genes.
Quote #3
Gram rewarded her with a sudden smile and spoke briskly. "You’re not the only one responsible, girl. You’ve been responsible a long time and done a good job. Take a rest now." (1.206)
Dicey doesn’t know how to take a rest, except maybe when she works on the boat. You can just see her grown up and bringing her laptop to the beach. We joke, but this scene has some sadness to it, too. Dicey's been bearing so much responsibility for so long, she's genuinely afraid of what might happen if she lets go. What if something bad goes down with James or Maybeth or Sammy?
Quote #4
Now they awaited action on the fat folders filled with copies of the children’s birth certificates and school records, with government papers in triplicate, saying everything that could be written down in numbers about Gram and the farm, about Momma and the kids. (3.27)
Even though Dicey, James, Sammy, and Maybeth are already Gram’s family, it doesn’t feel official to them until she actually adopts them. Anyone who’s ever waited anxiously to get a test back knows the anxiety a stack of papers can bring; multiply that by a hundred and you’ve got Dicey’s situation.
Quote #5
Dicey listened hard, not to hear precisely what they were saying, but to hear what the two speakers were like. If she was going to hold on, then she wanted to have a clear idea of who she was holding on to. So she could get a good grip. (5.236)
Dicey’s listening so intently is one of the things that makes her able to help customize Maybeth’s reading lessons, or at least to recognize the need to do so and put James on the task. So even though we know it's not necessarily a good thing that Dicey's holding on so hard, at least some good comes from it.
Quote #6
What did it matter then if he was getting into fights, or Maybeth never learned to read, or James pretended to be less smart than he was? Nothing mattered nearly as much as sitting together around this table, in the warm yellow light, all of them together. (6.132)
Oof. If this doesn't make you want to go hug every member of your family right now, we don't know what will. Dicey truly appreciates her family, messy baggage included, because she knows what it would mean to lose them.
Quote #7
"I got to thinking—when it was too late—you have to reach out to people. To your family too. You can’t just let them sit there, you should put your hand out. If they slap it back, well you reach out again if you care enough." (7.151)
Major moment alert! This is pretty much one of the hardest life lessons ever, and it's the most important lesson that Dicey needs to learn. Unfortunately, reaching out means taking a chance on getting hurt. But hey, it also means you might develop an even deeper bond.
Quote #8
"And I had an appointment at the lawyer’s," Gram announced. "At which I was told that you are now, legally and officially and permanently—and any other lee they could think of—my responsibility." (9.46)
Gram wants the responsibility of having Dicey and her siblings, even though it means a whole lot of challenges are coming down the pike. But the upside is that through them, her house is filled with children again, and she has a chance to do things differently this time.
Quote #9
"It’ll be all right, Sammy, it will. We’ll all be all right. Adopted means—somebody wants you to be her family." (11.80)
Momma probably also wanted her children to be her family, but sometimes worry and poverty can destroy the things you value most. Still, we hope these kids remember that their Momma probably loved him, but suffered from an illness that made it difficult for her to be a good parent to them.
Quote #10
If the wire weren’t there, Gram had told Dicey, the tree would spread out and split, broken apart by the weight of its own growth […] "That tree is like families," Gram had said, and Dicey, looking up now at its branches, wondered what, in that case, the wire was like. (12.3)
A few things the wire could be: Momma herself, love, joy, understanding, secrets, protection, shared history. Can you think of more?