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.
Stinky was either hitching up his pants of trying to pull a knife out of his back pocket, I couldn't tell. (2.30-32)
Stinky Garcia is scary. Like seriously scary. And what makes him such a menace is his violent streak. Here, Manny characterizes each part of Stinky as if it reveals just how violent he is—check out those "can-opener teeth," or the way his hair is "swatted" and his voice is "like knife blades." Yup, Stinky Garcia oozes danger.
Quote #2
Dad pulled out his rifle from the shelf of his closet, and after checking the loader began searching for bullets, waking up Pedi, who groaned and rubbed her eyes. […] He scattered Mom's animal collection, slapping her little glass and ceramic cows, pigs, donkeys, even rhinos and an elephant off the shelves. With one swoosh of his arm, he trashed to the floor my green plastic tyrannosaurus. (4.27)
Get ready for some major violence ahead because Dad is on a rampage looking for bullets. And why is he looking for bullets? Oh, just to shoot Mom. Wait, what? Oh yes, Dad thinks that the best way to deal with his frustrations is to whip out his rifle and find some bullets. When it comes to violence, Manny's dad is taking it to a whole new level—and if he's ready to attack Mom with the same gusto as he's knocking over those little animal statues, we're in for a super violent affair.
Quote #3
From the corner of his eye, he caught the dark clump of Mom running, and ran after her. When she disappeared behind a tree, he froze, shifting his knees, the barrel of the rifle alert and ready. For an instant I caught a glimpse of her tiptoeing away from a tree. Dad saw her too and banged on the bolt arm. She started with a jolt and began running again, ducking and dodging from tree to tree as Dad, frustrated with the loader because it wouldn't eat the bullet, and not wanting her to escape, pretended to lock a bullet in the chamber and level aim. He even lifted the barrel and made a shooting noise with his lips. Kapow. Kapow. Mom flinched her shoulders every time he did it, too. (4.43)
So here's the deal: Dad is actually trying to shoot his wife. That's pretty much the worst thing ever on it's own, but even when the bullets won't load, the make-believe violence is really scary, too—it has Mom acting like he may as well be shooting actual bullets at her.
Quote #4
He didn't know why Grandma would want to leave a message for me, but the dream sounded like a warning. I would die alone, he predicted, in a very cold place.
I leaped from the couch and hammered him on the arm. We wrestled around the living-room floor in front of Mom, too buried in her grief to pay us any mind. Dad wasn't too buried in grief, though. Irked by our noisy tumbling, he burst in from the kitchen and with one of his shoes, crowned us both on the head. He pointed the shoe threateningly at everybody and said that we all better get the message quick about how to behave, or else. (5.58-59)
In the Hernandez family, we've been seeing a lot of violence from Dad, but now it's looking like he's not the only one with a violent streak. Sure, he's the one who hits his kiddos upside the head with his shoe, but he only does this because Nardo and Manny are already tussling on the floor, throwing punches like whoa.
Quote #5
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. (6.56)
Remember when Manny thinks he's accidentally shot his sister? Yeah, that's a hard one to forget about. He might not have done it on purpose, but it's a seriously violent act all the same. Thankfully, she's totally fine physically, but the action still has some pretty huge ramifications, like making Manny feel like he might "lose my mind."
Quote #6
"Man, Lencho's gonna have it in for you!" he said finally, perking up in almost a gleeful way, like he wouldn't be too sorry if Lencho knocked in my teeth. […]
"No," I said. "He doesn't want to mess with Nardo."
"Oh, yeah."
He was glum again. He didn't have a brother, only a sister, and she'd as soon slap him in the face as smile. When you're like Albert, and you don't have protection, any day of the week, on any street corner, a guy like Lencho can kick in your rib cage and nobody would give a damn. (7.28, 31-33).
For the most part, the violent parts of this book haven't been the happiest—in fact, violence often seems like the worst thing that could happen—but now it sounds like Manny sees an upside to violence because he figures that Nardo's reputation provides him with some much-wanted protection. So when there's a bully like Lencho around, maybe having a big bro with a reputation for violence isn't the worst thing in the world.
Quote #7
I tried warning him. I tried explaining how ribs crack easy as dry twigs, and how a punch sometimes welcomes paralysis. But he wouldn't listen. He practically begged to sign up, and you could tell Lencho was disappointed at such a scrawny catch. He wanted guys like Nardo and Sammy Fuentes—dangers known to everyone. (7.38)
When Manny's bud Albert, a skinny little fellow, decides to join the boxers, Manny is worried about his pal—after all, there are some major physical dangers in boxing and Manny tries to give his friend fair warning. Just check out how he compares ribs to "twigs" and talks about "paralysis." But when it comes to fitting in with the boxing team, Albert wants to be part of the group, and that's way more important to him than all the violence afoot.
Quote #8
In the bleachers, it was a circus. […] But then needling stuff, like arguing and weasely bragging, sparked between some black and brown guys. A few even began to shove each other and spit into arguments. Then the bell to the second round clanged and everybody right away sat down. (7.104)
So the boxing match turns out to be just as violent as Manny predicted: There are bloody noses and black eyes, and more punches that we can count. But the violence of the boxing match doesn't stay contained within the ring either. Nope, instead we find it spreading into the bleachers, where folks are getting angry at each other in between the rounds. The good thing is that the violence stops when the fight in the ring starts up again. It's like a seesaw.
Quote #9
Then, maybe to keep me from saying anything more, she struck me again, this time with mean, chopping strokes. Zigzags of lightning connected the seconds as she cut down smack after smack on my neck and on my shoulder. The air had a sharp, splintery edge. I arched my back, cowering, but I didn't want to raise my arm to cover myself, thinking she'd stop hitting me sooner if I didn't do anything. (8.56)
There's more family violence afoot in the Hernandez household, and this time it's coming from Mom. When she's scared that Manny will wake up her hubby with his loud worrying about Magda and her fever, Mom takes matters into her own hands. Literally. What do you think of Mom's actions here? And what about Manny's response? He seems to know just how to make sure that the violence stops as quickly as possible. It's as if he's a total veteran at getting hit these days…
Quote #10
Next came a thud against my ribs as he sunk his knee into me, and a glancing heel burn on my neck from Eddie. The circle shrank in around me. From the corner of my eye, moist and dripping, I saw Gody, Rita and Patty inch closer. Frankie stayed back. Suddenly, I felt a foot press down on my hand. It sprung alive with needles, and jerking my chin sideways, I saw Rita, her mouth scrunched tight, grinding her heel into my hand. (10.41)
Manny wants to join Mondo's gang, and this is the Test of Courage to see if the newbie is worthy of being initiated. By this point in the book, we've seen Manny get beatings from tons of different folks, but this is the first time we've seen a larger group of people really going to town on our main man. Mondo and Eddie are the main ones beating up on Manny, but the spectators even take part (just check out Rita's heel-grinding trick). Ugh.