How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
[…] when Momma dropped the phone with a rattling clatter and a single sob—perfectly devastated. She sank to the floor, looking for all the world as if she were staring through the checkered brown and blue linoleum to behold the burning hot-lava core at the very center of the Earth. (1.18)
Question: Momma's savvy is being perfect at everything. Do you think that extends to her grief and how she navigates suffering?
Quote #2
"So, where are you all from?" he asked with the sorry voice of a man who'd just lost the last of his pluck and knew it. (10.24)
Poor Lester has never had it easy. Perhaps his plan is to simply make it through this trip and then quit his horrible job that he's no good at. We'll never know, fortunately, because Lill helps end his suffering.
Quote #3
I hadn't cried once since Poppa's accident, but now that I'd started, there on that big pink bus, I couldn't stop. Everything felt broken and hopeless. What if this had all been for nothing? (13.2)
Here is the rising action in the subplot of the book—the subplot being Mibs coming to terms with her savvy. And yet, it is a moment of necessary suffering in order for her to realize that she's been lying to herself up until this point.
Quote #4
If I wasn't careful of Grandpa's feelings, his grief would make the ground rumble, buckling the sidewalks… I pretended not to notice the tears on Grandpa's cheeks as we walked on along the beach. But I held his hand tight and strong all the way back home. (14.4)
The Beaumonts have to be especially careful with their savvies and letting their emotions get the better of them, or else terrible things can happen. This is a good example of why scumbling is so important, and shows what a good scumbler Grandpa has to be, considering his savvy. Suffering must be that much harder when you have to constantly worry about causing an earthquake by releasing your pain.
Quote #5
I felt as though someone had punched me in the stomach and pulled out all my bones, turning me into a queasy, useless blob of Jell-O. (17.33)
This is the point where the effects of Mibs's lying and deceit truly hit her, and she stops lying to herself. The only person who's making Mibs suffer here is Mibs.
Quote #6
"He's going to be mad," said Will, and for the first time on that whole trip Will looked painfully, miserably unhappy. (24.18)
Interestingly, Will's grief comes from disappointing the people that he loves most in the world. Do you think this is because Will Junior cares more about what other people think that he does about his own opinion of himself?
Quote #7
But when that preacher reached his last Amen, sorrow and grief unleashed the savvy of young and old alike. (26.7)
It has got to be really hard to scumble your way through suffering.
Quote #8
I knew that, despite Fish's newfound confidence, the memories of his full-blown thirteenth-birthday hurricane would haunt him for a long, long time. (28.11)
Deep suffering leaves scars, and not just the kind that shows up on your skin—emotional and behavioral suffering can leave emotional and behavioral scars. Perhaps that's part of the reason that Fish's concepts of loyalty and family are the way they are—because wants to spare his family from some of his suffering.
Quote #9
I remembered again that this was all my fault, that we wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for me and a savvy that had come and dropped me into hot water fast. (29.40)
Mibs continually grieves: for herself, for her mistakes, and for the circumstances she's in. While she definitely has plenty to feel sad about—her dad's in a coma, after all—experiencing a whole lot of change at once can cause anyone to grieve.
Quote #10
It wasn't pretty, delicate crying either. It was full-on, snot-dripping, chest-wheezing, jibber-jabber wailing. (33.1)
Mibs is still attempting to keep up appearances here, at least in the sense that she realizes how out of control she is at the moment. Mibs, however, is luckier than many of her family members in the sense that she can break down like this without any of the nastier side effects. Will this perhaps make her better as a person in the long run, considering that she can always work through her emotions to the fullest, unlike the rest of her family who have to hold things back?