How we cite our quotes: The main text of the story is cited (Chapter.Paragraph). The date headers are not counted as paragraphs. The verses in the chapters with a single passage from the narrator's religious texts are cited (Chapter.Verse.Line#). In chapters with multiple passages, the verses are cited (Chapter.Verse#.Line#). The four section pages with the years and passages are cited (Year.Verse).
Quote #7
For the street poor, unable to afford medical care, even a minor wound might be fatal.
I am one of the street poor, now. Not as poor as some, but homeless, alone, full of books and ignorant of reality. Unless I meet someone from the neighborhood, there's no one I can afford to trust. No one to back me up. (14.24-25)
So right here we've got a big gigantic dividing line in Lauren's life. Before, she wasn't poor, but now she is. Robledo has been destroyed, and the fearsome outside world with all the poor people is now her world: she's now one of the street poor herself. Crossing economic class divides can be one of the most perspective-altering events in life—so from this point forward, we get to see how Lauren acts, and whether she puts into practice the beliefs that she wrote in her journal back when she was safer in Robledo.
Quote #8
I stopped in front of our house and stared at the five adults and the child who were picking through the ruins of it. Who were these vultures? Did the fire draw them? Is that what the street poor do? Run to fire and hope to find a corpse to strip? (14.47)
It's her first day into being poor, and already Lauren's surprised by the actions of other poor. They're scavenging at the ruins of her home, taking whatever they can. She's not really in much of a position to be judgmental about it, either: soon enough, she'll find herself scavenging as well. It's something she learns more about once she teams up with Zahra.
Quote #9
"She died for us," the scavenger woman had said of the green face. Some kind of insane burn-the-rich movement, Keith had said. We've never been rich, but to the desperate, we looked rich. We were surviving and we had our wall. Did our community die so that addicts could make a help-the-poor political statement? (14.72)
Yep, money is a relative matter. Lauren didn't consider herself rich while living in Robledo, but relative to the street poor, she basically was. Faced with the reality of the poor scavenging the ruins of her home, Lauren questions their purported political motivations. Maybe the pyro addicts thought they were helping the poor by attacking the rich, but Lauren doesn't much believe any of that. Seems like they are only out for themselves.