How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Deborah knew that they must have taken the naked fact and buried it hurriedly somewhere, like carrion. But she knew well how the stench of a buried lie purses the guilty, hanging in the air they breathe until everything smells of it, rancid and corrupting. (10.54)
These are Deborah's thoughts when Dr. Fried tries to get her to see that she didn't really try to kill her baby sister. Deborah protests against Dr. Fried's suggestion: she believes in the truth of her own guilt. She thinks that her parents have never spoken about catching her in the act because they always bury unpleasant things and put on happy faces. Deborah can convince herself of anything if it upholds her image of herself as a terrible person.
Quote #8
"It was a wiling soil then, to which this seed of Yr came," the doctor said. "The deceits of the grown-up world, the great gap between Grandfather's pretensions and the world you saw more clearly, the lies told by your own precocity, that you were special, and the hard fact that you couldn't get to first base with your own contemporaries no matter how impressive your specialness was." (12.9)
These are Dr. Fried's observations on the birth of Yr and its connection to Deborah's feelings about lies. It's complicated. Pop told Deborah she was awesome, but the world told Deborah she was a "stinking Jew." Her father told her that "sex maniacs" wanted to hurt her—and that just by being a girl, she was guilty for making them want to do that. Yr was a better alternative to the awful stuff Deborah saw and heard about going on around her.
Quote #9
"You were asked to mistrust even the reality to which you were closest and which you could discern as clearly as daylight. Small wonder that mental patients have so low a tolerance for lies." (17.90)
Dr. Fried understands that Deborah has so little tolerance of lying because she knew all along, deep down, that she was sick—but no one around her wanted to admit it, especially her parents.