How we cite our quotes: ("Abbreviated chapter name," page)
Quote #10
"I wonder how Mom could be Abuela Celia's daughter. And what I'm doing as my mother's daughter. Something got horribly scrambled along the way." ("Matrix," 178)
Most of us have felt like this at some point or other, perhaps wishing we'd miraculously find out that we were adopted at a young age from a richer, better, more stable family. In Pilar's case, her ability to sympathize and communicate with her grandmother exacerbates this natural adolescent feeling.
Quote #11
"...I feel something's dried up inside me, something a strong wind could blow out of me for good. That scares me. I guess I'm not so sure what I should be fighting for anymore. Without confines, I'm damn near reasonable. That's something I never wanted to become." ("Changó," 198)
Pilar finds herself moving away from the extreme behaviors and feelings that so defined her as a young teen and worries that this means she's settling. She doesn't yet realize that this natural part of maturation will open up more opportunities for personal crisis in the future.
Quote #12
"Celia reaches up to her left earlobe and releases her drop pearl earring to the sea. She feels its absence between her thumb and forefinger. Then she unfastens the tiny clasp in her right ear and surrenders the other pearl. Celia closes her eyes and imagines it drifting as a firefly through the darkened seas, imagines its slow extinguishing." ("Six Days," 244)
Because Celia is so closely associated with those pearl earrings, most readers will go straight to red alert when they see her discard them into the sea. Surely, this presages Celia's death. Well, you know what happens when you assume. Think about the other possibilities that this release of her former identity might signal before you go for the death option.