How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
This time it was Stinky, twisting a stick in his hand, acting like he'd just thought up something terrific. He was in my grade at school, but about three years older than everybody else. He had ratty shoulders and two large can-opener teeth. His black hair was swatted smooth with pomade, and his voice sounded like knife blades rubbing together.
I'd always been afraid of him. Every year at school he made it a habit of punching me around to show he was still boss. Once he broke a bone in my little finger, and I lied to Mom about it, saying that I got it sliding into second base. Another time he separated the soft rubber on the bridge of my nose, and I had to tell her I got hit by a pop fly. (2.30-31)
Stinky Garcia is scary as all get-out—he has "can-opener teeth," which makes us nervous just to read about. In fact, everything about this guy from his hair to his voice has us trembling like a leaf. Keep an eye out for the different folks that Manny finds frightening in this book, and whether they share any similar traits.
Quote #2
Just like that, they lost interest in me, and started walking across the Big Lawn toward the Yellow Projects. A cold ache of fear thawed in my chest, but I didn't move, thinking that if I did, they'd reel around and start bullying me again. (2.45)
When the Garcia brothers start beating on Manny, he's frightened as can be—it's three against one so he's in for a rough beating. Until they decide he's not worth their time anymore. Notice how physical fear is when Manny describes it. Interesting, right?
Quote #3
I leaned my chin on the dashboard and asked, "Rich people live out here, huh?"
"It's just another place to live," Mr. Hart said blandly, "middle-class, some upper."
I could tell by the quickness of his voice that he was disappointed that I was excited, except that I wasn't excited, but scared; scared of all the new kids I'd be meeting; different kids, the kind that lived in houses like these. (3.36-38)
Manny's mom wants him to go the fancier school on the other side of town, and he's a big bundle of emotions. Sure, it'd be nice to be mostly excited about a new adventure ahead, but the truth is that Manny is more scared than anything. We think money—or the lack thereof—is a factor here.
Quote #4
The sound of the gun going off was like a huge mouth swallowing a noise, and Pedi was eaten by that mouth. Thoughts ran together inside my head and blurred, like currents of fast water flowing together. Loud shrieks inside my lungs were bursting to get out, but couldn't. Pedi was dead, I knew it. The way she fell back on the floor, she could only be dead. I was afraid to go up to her, thinking I'd see a gory gash where the bullet entered her head and I'd lose my mind.
My muscles felt weak and droopy. I thought I was going to pass out, but then I heard her crying, and when I speeded over to her, her mouth was fluttering. Tears sprouted from her eyes and leaked down past her ears, but this only made me laugh; my heart felt like it was being squeezed between two hands; joy and grief pressing and unpressing. (6.56-57)
If we almost accidentally shot our little sisters, we'd be freaked out just like Manny is. Before he realizes that Pedi is okay, he has tons of emotions surging, and fear is definitely a big one. But once he figures out that Pedi is okay, he starts to change his tune. What was your reaction to Manny's laughter? How do you think Manny's fear relates to "joy" and "grief" here?
Quote #5
Thoughts came like damp, echoing coughs, and the air felt empty. I sort of began to feel like no gravity was holding me, and I was spiraling down a long, black tunnel. Looking up, I remembered the bullet, which I figured got buried inside the cooler shaft. I prayed no one would ever see it. The thought of how close I'd come to killing Pedi gave my lungs a peculiar sponginess, as if apart from my body they'd been sobbing for hours. (6.103)
Manny's obviously been super scared that he almost killed his little sister, and that makes his body feel all sorts of weird things, like there is "no gravity" or his lungs have "a peculiar sponginess." Check out how these descriptions are super physical, letting us know again that fear is something Manny experiences all over his body. Plus, they help us to learn just how upsetting the idea of almost killing Pedi is, as if our main man can't control the way he feels.
Quote #6
Being an official trainer, I got a reputation among a couple of girls, Rachel and Mary, who hung over by the baseball diamond. Their attitudes toward me couldn't have changed more completely. They said hi to me now, whereas before I would've died if just one of them had thrown me her eyes. (7.66)
There are plenty of things to be afraid of in this book and some of the stuff is pretty huge (ahem, Dad trying to shoot Mom). But then there's the smaller stuff, like talking to girls; for Manny, sometimes these littler fears don't feel so little. Now that he's part of a sports team, though, he has some confidence in his corner. Do you think it's just being on the team that causes this change in Manny? How else does he go from having butterflies in his stomach to being super brave?
Quote #7
Before I could tell him it was just a plain bloody nose, Chico took one look at the blood sopping the towel, and his face glazed over with shock.
"Hey, it's okay," I said, reassuringly. I left Albert by his locker. "It's only a bloody nose."
"Only a bloody nose!" Chico cried, clutching at his hair. He was stiff with panic. If somebody at that moment had pushed him over, he'd have landed flat on the back of his head. (7.77-79)
When it's almost time for Chico to start his boxing match, he's scared as all get-out, especially since he's just seen Albert's bloody nose. But according to Manny, the bloody nose actually looks worse than it is, which means that he thinks Chico is getting nervous over something that's actually not a big deal. Whether or not the bloody nose is a major concern, the fear paralyzes Chico—it's as if he can't move. When it comes to Chico, fear definitely has a way of holding him back, at least for a moment.
Quote #8
When Boise sledgehammered him on the side of the ear, his shoulders stiffened and his jaw squinched like a little electricity had run through it.
My heart was jerking around inside my chest, I was so nervous. My eyelashes were tiny wings beating in a fevery air, yet my face felt frozen, as if blasted by an arctic wind. (7.108-109)
Manny is super anxious during Lencho and Boise's boxing match. And it does sound like quite the beating. Do you think Lencho sounds scared during this fight? The fact that he doesn't give up at least tells us that he's not so afraid that it stops him from trucking forward. But our man Manny can't get a grip on his own nerves. What do you think he's so scared of?
Quote #9
When I finally looked up, Mom backed away, her eyes circles of panic and her long liquid hair drooping across her face. She pushed back some strands of hair and stood there, her nose flaring and her cheeks watery with tears. […] "Please, I can't wake him. He'll blame it on you for not watching over her. He'll say it's your fault. Come on, honey, go back to bed, I'll fix Magda up." (8.57)
When Magda comes home from the hospital and gets a fever, Mom freaks out like whoa; she even hits Manny a bunch when he suggests they need to go back to the hospital. But there's a reason for all this worry and violence: Dad. He doesn't know what happened to Magda and it doesn't seem like the kind of thing he'd take lightly. But in the end, Dad actually wakes up and is pretty helpful. Thank goodness.
Quote #10
For days I suffered the joy and terror of wanting to go to Dorothy's party, and knowing that it would be a big mistake. It was like a loose tooth you keep wiggling with your tongue, slow and deliberate, teasing the pain. The pain, however, wasn't in my mouth, but inside my chest. I fought against it. I'd stare hard into the mirror and order myself over and over to be strong . . . be a man! But then a cold fluttering would begin in the pit of my chest and before I could stop it, it'd spurt up a misty burning in my throat and eyes. My mind was speeding anxiously, gobbling up whole chunks of anticipation. At first, time seemed slow and heavy, but then faster and lighter—lighter until the day of the party, when the waiting became like no weight at all. Even so, I began to panic when Nardo pulled our Plymouth up in front of Mr. Giddens's house. (9.92)
Here's that fear of talking to girls cropping up all over again. And this time the girl is a snobby one named Dorothy who only invited Manny to her party because her dad forced her to. But in typical Manny-style, his nerves take on a super physical presence—his fear is "like a loose tooth" and in his chest, it's slow and fast, plus heavy and light. We'll see it again: Fear is physical for this main man and that's that.