How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph)
Quote #1
[…] because if I was one hundred and two I'd have known what to say when Mrs. Price put the red sweater on my desk. I would've known how to tell her it wasn't mine instead of just sitting there with that look on my face and nothing coming out of my mouth. (5)
The story's first hint that passivity is linked with a lack of voice is provided in this quote. Notice: It's not that Rachel didn't know what to do or how to feel, but that she didn't know how to express it.
Quote #2
"Whose? It's been sitting in the coatroom for a month." "Not mine," says everybody. "Not me." (6-7)
Meanwhile, the other students have their voices, and every one denies ever having owned a jacket of such horrific ugliness. By speaking up they manage to avoid passively accepting the jacket.
Quote #3
Mrs. Price takes the sweater and puts it right on my desk, but when I open my mouth nothing comes out. (9)
Again, the problem isn't that Rachel doesn't know what to say. The story's narrative technique allows us to know her thoughts, and she knows what to say. The problem is her inability to vocalize those thoughts.
Quote #4
"That's not, I don't, you're not … Not mine," I finally say in a little voice that was maybe me when I was four. "Of course it's yours," Mrs. Price says. "I remember you wearing it once." Because she's older and the teacher, she is right and I'm not. (10-11)
When Rachel does manage to speak, it is in a hardly convincing four-year-old's voice. Notice the difference between her dialogue and Mrs. Price's. Mrs. Price's simple declarative sentence leaves little room for doubt. I saw you wear it once, case closed.
Quote #5
I move the red sweater to the corner of my desk with my ruler. I move my pencil and books and eraser as far from it as possible. I even move my chair a little to the right. (13)
Unable to speak up and rid herself of the sweater, Rachel does all she can to distance herself from the embarrassment. Here, we see a hint of rebellion in her—she's really sticking it to the man.
Quote #6
Not mine, not mine, not mine. (13)
The short, declarative statements that give Mrs. Price and Sylvia certainty in their voice do occur to Rachel; they just occur in her mind. Notice how the repetition makes it more definitive than that four-year-old voice from the previous quote.
Quote #7
Except when math period ends Mrs. Price says loud and in front of everybody "Now, Rachel, that's enough," because she sees I've shoved the red sweater to the tippy-tip corner of my desk and it's hanging all over the edge like a waterfall, but I don't care. (14)
It's striking how different Rachel is in her mind than the passive Rachel displayed in her words. Rachel's thoughts and actions are defiant; she loses herself in her inability to express that defiance.
Quote #8
"Rachel," Mrs. Price says. She says it like she's getting mad. "You put that sweater on right now and no more nonsense." "But it's not—" "Now!" Mrs. Price says. (15-17)
The ability to command is also through voice, and Mrs. Price has got that trick down.
Quote #9
My face all hot and spit coming out of my mouth because I can't stop the little animal noises from coming out of me, until there aren't any more tears left in my eyes […]. (19)
Of course, something has got to give. In a way, crying is a vocalization. It's like all her silence just gave way and her voice forces its way out. But when you're in class, this is a much more humiliating way of getting your point across.
Quote #10
That stupid Phyllis Lopez, who is even dumber than Sylvia Saldivar, says she remembers the red sweater is hers! I take it off right away and give it to her, only Mrs. Price pretends like everything's okay. (20)
It is through a voice that the situation is brought to an end, but it's not Rachel's voice—it's Phyllis'.