How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
But I'm not an engine, she thought. Engines don't cry. Engines don't need friends to talk to, to play with, to share. Reaching out, she tried to pretend Fourth Cousin was there. (4.23)
Father compares Shirley to an engine—she'll start working (think: feeling better) soon. But Shirley, insightful, knows that she isn't automatic like a machine. She has emotions, wants, and needs, unlike a piece of machinery, so though her parents dismiss her feelings and say she'll just bounce back, Shirley knows she's more complex than they're giving her credit for.
Quote #2
Perhaps someone would come to her rescue. But no one passed. She was alone. (2.131)
Shirley gets lost in Brooklyn on her first day. This symbolizes the loneliness she'll feel for a long time—no one will come to rescue her from her loneliness, despite how her parents try to help. Her dad finds her and brings her home, but Shirley ultimately has to rescue herself from isolation by making friends.
Quote #3
Day by day, week by week, little by little Shirley shrank until she was no more. It was the only explanation. Why else did the class, which welcomed her so warmly at first, ignore her so now? True, she could only speak a few words at a time, and most often no one could even guess at the meaning of those. (4.1)
After her first day in school, Shirley feels like no one pays any attention to her; she shrinks away until no one even acknowledges her. They've turned away from her and have stopped helping her try to fit in, which causes Shirley to remove herself even more from her classmates—if they don't want to reach out to her and won't acknowledge her, she feels insignificant.
Quote #4
It was spring now, but Shirley, hunched in her coat, walked as if there were still snow on the ground. Carefully she sidestepped the boys who played basketball, the girls who roller-skated, the groups who seemed to laugh or whisper whenever she passed. She dreaded the distance across the school yard. It was endless and full of traps. If a loose ball rolled by, should she catch it? If a girl fell, should she help her up? If someone glanced her way, should she wave? (4.3)
When Shirley walks home from school, she ignores all the kids having fun together without her. She doesn't want to interact with them at all because they're already neglecting her, plus there's the translation barrier that seems to get in the way of every interaction. She doesn't know how to behave around people and doesn't want to get made fun of even more.
Quote #5
Yet none of the gang noticed. They seemed not to see her at all. She ought to go home, she thought. Mother had learned to make delicious cupcakes. But she did not move. She stood by instead, like a hungry ghost. (4.19)
None of her classmates playing in the schoolyard seem to even acknowledge the new girl in school. She longs to go home to one of the few people that do pay attention to her, but Shirley chooses not to eat a cupcake made by a familiar person, and instead she hungers after what she thinks she can't have—friendship with these kids. She's a ghost, too, because the other kids look right through her and don't really see her.
Quote #6
Laughter sped up and down the line. Shirley slunk back to her classroom. She wasn't hungry anymore. (4.65)
When Shirley thinks a new classmate is Chinese, she gets so excited, thinking she can have a friend whom she can relate to. Unfortunately, the girl embarrasses her, saying she's American and doesn't speak Chinese; at the other kids' laughter, Shirley shrinks back. She puts herself out there in a social situation and gets shot down, so she removes herself.
Quote #7
The good deed and the height made her feel superior to the boys and girls playing stickball in the courtyard. All that effort just to hit and catch a silly little ball. All that hurrying just to step on a book bag. (5.2)
When she's clapping erasers for her teacher, Shirley removes herself mentally from her classmates. She pretends she doesn't want to be involved with the other kids, playing their trivial games. In truth, though, that's a lie—she really wants to be down there with them playing games, rather than on a separate pedestal.
Quote #8
Her classmates had plans, plans that included her clansmen, not her. (7.6)
Even after she makes friends, Shirley is alone for the summer of 1947. Everyone else has summer vacation plans, an American tradition, but she, still sometimes a "foreign" girl, doesn't. She's reminded of how different she is because her pals have family to go visit in the States… but, of course, Shirley's family is back in China.
Quote #9
Shirley hid her face in the pillow. She knew the answer. She was afraid her friends might have changed, just as change had come to her. (9.9)
Before Shirley goes back to school in September, she's afraid that she'll return to being the outsider in school. What if they're all different, just as she's changed a bit? Does that mean she won't have any pals? If there's one thing Shirley doesn't want, it's to go to back to the time before she put in all that work to make friends.
Quote #10
While books were being passed out, the principal came in with a new student. "Class, this is Emily. Emily Levy."
Shirley knew immediately that they would be friends. (9.33-34)
The positions have changed. Shirley isn't the newbie anymore—it's Emily's turn. Shirley knows exactly what this is like, though, so she sets out to befriend Emily. She wants to make the girl's experience more like she wishes her own had been, with a kind friend to fill her in on life at P.S. 8. What a nice way to give back.