How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I was six months away from turning thirteen and I thought I knew everything. (1.46)
Let's face it: All twelve-year-olds think they have it figured out, but in reality, we know there's still a lot to learn when you're that age. Jamie's no different. She thinks she understands life and war because she's an army kid, but in reality, she has a lot to learn.
Quote #2
But when the announcement came, over a Sunday dinner in March, a couple of days after TJ's eighteenth birthday, he didn't say a word for a long time, just looked down at his plate like the medium-rare steak staring back up at him was about to whisper the meaning of life. (2.21)
When her brother signs up for going to war only a couple days after he's eligible, Jamie is thrilled. Her dad? Not so much. She knows that can't be true, though, because her dad's an army guy. He loves war… right? Yet, she's confronted with the fact that things aren't as simple as she thinks they are.
Quote #3
"Oh, honey," my mother said. "You don't know anything about war. You're just a little girl." (2.36)
Oh, snap. Jamie's mom is the first to put her in her place. Jamie thinks her mom is wrong, but it turns out, she's not—there's a lot Jamie doesn't know about war (and life) because she's still growing up. Again Jamie has to reconcile what she thinks of reality with what others tell her about it.
Quote #4
"But if you're going to watch, stand back, because those of us who choose to live are going to run you down." (5.4)
The Colonel isn't a fan of photography. Why? Mainly because he thinks it allows a person to live in a different reality. If you're always looking through a camera lens, you're never really living your life—or so he thinks. He wants to live in the here and now instead of trying to get a good picture of it.
Quote #5
"Your brother died?" For some reason, I found this answer nearly unacceptable. (7.27)
Jamie is shocked that Private Hollister's brother died during the war. Since people dying is kind of war's thing, though, this shows that despite her general excitement and enthusiasm over war, she doesn't really think about what it means. It's only when she's confronted with the reality of it that she realizes how delusional she's been.
Quote #6
There was no doubt about it. The Colonel looked like a man who hated his job. (8.44)
Until now, Jamie thought her dad loved his job. Her surprise at seeing how tattered her dad is reminds us that there are often two versions of reality when you're a child: There's your idea of your parents, and then there's who they really are. Jamie's always thought the Colonel is happy in the army, but in reality, he's miserable because he has to send people off to war.
Quote #7
What emerged on the paper was a picture of a GI in a wheelchair, his right leg amputated at the knee and wrapped in a white bandage. He looked so much like TJ, I gasped and took a step backward. I had to force myself to look again and see for sure that it wasn't my brother in the wheelchair, that it was someone I'd never seen before in my life. (9.43)
Jamie thinks she wants to be a part of the war, but she can't even stomach looking at the pictures of it. Here, she squints at the photo because she can't face reality. It's tough to see images of war up close and personal, and that's exactly what she's looking at in all of TJ's film.
Quote #8
And, when you got right down to it, if I lost all those things, I had practically lost my own self. Which is a sad and depressing thought to have. (11.39)
When she doesn't feel positive about the war anymore, Jamie questions who she is. All her life she's known herself as someone who supports war. Once she loses this major part of her identity, Jamie questions reality. She doesn't know how to be herself without promoting fighting or the army in some way.
Quote #9
"We got into it for the right reasons," the Colonel said, leaning forward and looking straight at me, like he needed me to believe him. "That's what all those antiwar types don't understand. They don't understand that the Soviets and the communist Chinese are a real threat to our security. We can't let 'em have Southeast Asia." (13.27)
We finally begin to understand what the Colonel's issues with the war are when he explains this to Jamie. There are different versions of reality at play here. Some people are for the war; others think it's gone south and has to be stopped. The Colonel highlights a real debate that the country grappled with at this time.
Quote #10
I believed those negatives would reveal the truth about TJ, what he'd been doing right before he went missing in action, what he'd been thinking about, some clue that would tell me where he was about to go. (16.2)
Jamie's bummed when the pictures don't help her solve TJ's disappearance. It's a cruel thing to come to terms with, but Jamie has to accept the reality that she's powerless to help her brother.