How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
[…] and in my head I wrote the story of a girl who surfed the cold green ocean, when one day she started paddling in the wrong direction and didn't know it until she looked back and couldn't see the shore. (prologue.4)
Metaphorically speaking, if Tommy is the wrong direction that Deanna paddles in, what is the shore she loses sight of? Herself? Her self-respect? Her formerly decent relationship with her family?
Quote #2
I'd get a job, right, and work my butt off all summer, then Darren and Stacy and me would pool our money and find a place. (1.80)
This plan sounds like, well, a plan… except for the little fact that Deanna makes it before talking to Darren and Stacy about it. Until she does, it's stuck in fantasy land—which buys her a little mental freedom, but that's it.
Quote #3
She had all kinds of pictures of lighthouses that she'd torn out of magazines and printed off the Internet, and a big poster of one right over April's crib. (2.20)
Stacy hangs an image of her metaphor for escape—the lighthouse—where she'll have to see it every time she picks April up or puts her down. There's something a little sad about that, right? Do you think the picture over April's crib is also a reminder to Stacy to try to help her daughter not get stuck the way she has?
Quote #4
I'd already detached from the conversation. In my head I saw the girl on the waves, bobbing along, thinking my thoughts, feeling my feelings, swimming away. (2.75)
If the girl in Deanna's story can feel Deanna's feelings and still swim away, why is the real Deanna so stuck?
Quote #5
An image flashed in my mind: Stacy in a different living room, with a nicer, ungreen carpet, and a real painting of a lighthouse over the fireplace. "We won't live here forever, Stacy." (2.131)
Deanna doesn't imagine actually taking Stacy away to a place with a lighthouse, just to a place with a nicer picture of one. It's like a cake of hopelessness with a slightly less hopeless frosting.
Quote #6
"Deanna, I'm serious. I don't want you stuck in Pacifica after you graduate, hanging around and getting into trouble." (2.198)
Darren assumes that the only thing to do in Pacifica is get into trouble—but there are people like Michael, the owner of Picasso's Pizza, who live there just fine without getting into trouble. Do you think Deanna is more like Darren or Michael?
Quote #7
He leaned against the counter, holding April to his chest. He looked tired; big circles under his eyes, lips tight. "Remember last summer? When all we did was drive around looking for parties?" (7.51)
One year has completely changed Darren's life, just like one night completely changed Deanna's. Sex has irrevocably altered both of their futures.
Quote #8
"Like, what if she hadn't had April? She might be in college or backpacking across Europe or something. She looked like that kind of girl." (7.67)
Stacy made the choice to have April and stay in Pacifica. She may have looked like the kind of girl who would get out, but her parents were even less supportive than Deanna's, and she ended up trapped instead.
Quote #9
"If you guys move out, that means I'll have a place to go, too. Once in a while, I mean. To visit." (12.27)
Do you think Deanna will really be happy just visiting Darren and Stacy? Will getting away from her parents once in a while be enough, or will she end up just as jealous of Darren and Stacy as she is of Lee?
Quote #10
"You can't afford to move without it," I said, seeing the last shred of my fantasy blowing away. I knew I had to let it. (14.51)
Deanna makes the decision to let her fantasy blow away so Darren and Stacy can live theirs. In a way it's like she's making up for the sex talk she didn't have with Lee: she wants to do something good for someone so they don't have to suffer like she did.