How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The assignment was to do another self-portrait. I went abstract, as in: blob. Degas had dancers, I have blobs. Broken, glued-together blobs. (2.10)
Why does Jude identify with this broken blob? In what ways does she resemble it? And we don't just mean her lame haircut.
Quote #2
I know from doing portraits that you have to look at someone a really long time to see what they're covering up, to see their inside face, and when you do see it and get it down, that's the thing that makes people freak out about how much a drawing looks like them. Brian's inside face is worried. (3.264-3.265)
Hmm. We're guessing that Brian was worried about being gay. Later, we find out he's been bullied in the past.
Quote #3
"A friend of my mom's came on to me."…"How old? How much on?" I ask, instead of what I want to ask, wishing he'd used a pronoun. Was it a boyfriend? (3.459 & 3.461)
Noah has long known that he's gay. Figuring out whether or not Brian's gay too is a whole other ballgame.
Quote #4
Another Brian's emerging, I can tell. One I'm certain I'm not going to like at all. It occurs to me that Jude does this too, changes who she is depending on who she's with. (3.482-3.483)
Noah always feels like his same old awkward self. (At least, in the earlier time of the novel.) He's unnerved seeing the different faces of people close to him.
Quote #5
Is it possible our personalities have swapped bodies? (4.30)
Between ages 14 and 16, Noah and Jude's personalities, looks, friends and hobbies have changed a lot. They don't much resemble their former selves. But their new selves resemble their twin's former self. Um, you know what we mean.
Quote #6
"Dad, isn't there a disease where the flesh calcifies until the poor afflicted person is trapped within their own body like it's a stone prison?"…I don't share that I think the three of us all might have it metaphorically. Our real selves buried so deep in these imposter ones." (4.64 & 4.67)
Jude has the strong sense that she, her brother, and their dad are each, in their own way, living a lie. The only thing that would be worse would be actually having that disease.
Quote #7
"Listen to me. It takes a lot of courage to be true to yourself, true to your heart. You always have been very brave that way and I pray you always will be. It's your responsibility, Noah. Remember that." (5.384)
After she finds out about Noah's sexuality (by walking in on him and Brian masturbating together, no less), Noah's mom tells him that his relationship with Brian has inspired her to get a divorce and remarry. That's…quite a thing to tell your son, don't you think? Interesting moment of inspiration, too.
Quote #8
Do you really want to be that girl? Mom had asked me over and over that summer and fall as my skirts got shorter, my heels higher, my lipstick darker…Then she was dead and I was really and truly that girl. (6.160-6.161)
After her mom dies, Jude changes her appearance drastically. She doesn't want to be that girl—not anymore.
Quote #9
"What's with the drinking? Following in my footsteps? This isn't you, Picasso." How does Oscar know who Noah is to know who Noah isn't? "It isn't me," Noah slurs. "I'm not me anymore." (6.200-6.202)
That's a confusing sentence (who he is to know who he isn't…what?) The point is that Noah feels like he's been living undercover, as he later says. He hasn't felt like the "real" Noah in a long, long time.
Quote #10
"Maybe a person is just made up of a lot of people," I say. "Maybe we're accumulating these new selves all the time." (8.96)
What aspects of Noah and Jude's personalities stay the same over the course of the novel? Which ones change? How many people are they all together, if you had to do the math?