Eleven Sadness Quotes

This one could depend on how you read it, but we detect a hint of sadness in these words. After all, it is Rachel's birthday and she probably expected to wake up to find a day brimming with new possibilities. But nope, it's just another day. Maybe we'd expect this kind of thing from a 45 year old but at eleven? That's kind of sad, if you ask us.

Even mothers cry. Fathers, too—but don't expect them all to admit it. Notice that while she is with her mother, Rachel finds sadness and disappointment to be perfectly acceptable emotions. It's just three-year-old you, no biggie. That, dear Shmooper, is all going to change with that pesky red sweater.

Here, sadness is expressed in the simile "pennies in a tin Band-Aid box," which hints at a sort of emptiness that comes with feeling sad. It's as though Rachel is saying that being a fuller person and having the experience of more years would have prevented the sadness she feels.

The sweater represents an embarrassment for Rachel, but it also brings us to a hard-to-define sadness into her life. Just look at that description—the tattered thing even looks sad. It's the kind of sweater that you'd see and think, "Wow, that poor thing looks like it's been through a lot."

Remember our quote from earlier. In both instances, the act of crying—the physical manifestation of sadness—is associated with being three years old. Like many children, Rachel associates getting older with being happier, which is why she wants to be one hundred and two. But as we saw with her mother, this isn't necessarily the case.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could just bundle your sadness up, toss it over a fence, and hear "I Can See Clearly Now" playing in the background? Rachel thinks so too, and her wish to throw the sweater away shows us this. It might be a childish wish, but that also makes it a relatable one.

The sadness of the sweater intensifies here. It goes from being an annoyance to physically hurting Rachel. And the germs? Talk about the heebie-jeebies.

Rachel's similes about hiccups and brain freezes may be childish, but that's kind of the point. She doesn't have grand, Shakespearean concepts of tragedy to consider because she's only eleven. No Alas, poor Yoricks for this girl. On the other hand, they're still painful things, and the similes allow the reader to better imagine her sadness.

Remember that lack of birthday spirit we mentioned earlier? It returns throughout the story, and Rachel tries to use the fact that it's her special day to make up for the sadness she feels. But once it's all said and done, she knows it's just no use.

Rachel wants her sadness to be far, far away like the balloon, but just because it's far away doesn't mean it no longer exists. It'll still be there, like all her past ages, even if she has to close her eyes to see it.