How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Cheryl and her sister got punished if they "disrespected" the old troll.
"Well, that all sucks the big one," I said.
"Yeah." She was looking down at her desk. (3.11-13)
Cheryl's parents may physically be there, but emotionally, they've completed abandoned their daughters. To them, Bad Grandpa's word takes precedence over their own kids'—even if he's sexually abusing them.
Quote #2
[Bonny's] parents had an import shop up in Toledo. They'd go on long trips to buy stuff for it, but the shop only made about enough to pay for those trips […] Meanwhile, Bonny had to have money for groceries, clothes for her younger sister and two brothers, the house payment, and all that. She said her parents never asked where she got it, didn't even seem to be aware that most of the time when they were away they weren't sending any money. (3.58)
Seriously, who goes on trips to buy foreign junk and forgets to send their kids money? We seriously have to question Bonny's parents' motives—do they really want to own a business? Or are they just in it for the lifestyle?
Quote #3
I'd seen the marks on Squid's back in the gym class showers; I'd helped him out with a place for him and his two younger sibs to sleep; there had been a couple of sacks of groceries I'd gotten for them—maybe more than a couple, come to admit it. But tempting as it was, I'd never ratted out old Cabrillo. (3.88)
Not only is Squid the victim of physical abuse, but he's also the sole provider for his younger siblings. A lot of the Madmen seem to have situations that are based on neglect, with their parents only giving them attention when they want to beat up on them or talk about how badly they've disappointed the family.
Quote #4
She blew a cloud of cigarette smoke into my room, and sighed. "I guess it's pretty weird that you're being all adult and I'm being the kid and wanting my freedom." (8.39)
Karl's mom may not be abusing or neglecting him in the same way his friends' parents are, but the roles in their family are reversed to a perverse degree. Karl is the parent and the provider, while Beth is the child. That said, she's certainly abandoning her duties as a mother.
Quote #5
[Marti had] never been anywhere long enough to have many friends, and her father hadn't really approved of her having the few she sometimes had. She'd gotten locked out a lot but had always spent the night sleeping in her car or at a diner. She couldn't remember a single interesting thing that had ever happened to her. (9.102)
Karl and Marti probably bond because both his mom and her dad have completely misplaced the idea of their children being able to have their own identities. While Karl is inhibited by his mom's drinking and stealing, Marti's dad degrades her for not being as smart as he expects her to be. Neither seems to realize that both of their children are going above and beyond to just survive.
Quote #6
"Laughing at everything is probably a good idea, considering what everything is like." (12.23)
Marti's words of wisdom have to do with the dark, perverse humor that the Madmen use to respond to the situations in their lives—not because they're deliberately trying to be inappropriate but because their lives are so bad that the only reaction is to laugh.
Quote #7
Twice in two days. I could lose a month's worth every three months or so, like I had been since freshman year, but I couldn't f***ing lose it every f***ing two f***ing days […] She couldn't keep doing this.
But if I could stop her I'd already have stopped her.
How could she steal that much of my f***ing life? (13.82-84)
We're just going to come out and say it: We here at Shmoop have reviewed the situation and frankly, we think Karl has been outstandingly patient with his mom given all he has to put up with. We can't really condone fits of profanity, but since this is a novel and Karl is a fictional character, we totally get why he ends up at this point.
Quote #8
Huck would have been a Madman, for sure, if he'd gone to our school, I can tell you that. His dad was a drunk who was beating him, and kidnapped him, and threatened to kill him, and everybody in that town knew what was happening—the only people he could trust were other kids. And them not very much. (16.158)
If there's one thing John Barnes does an awesome job of in this book, it's showing how literature is immortal. One hundred years after its publication, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is still more than relevant to Karl's life. Which makes us ask—as you're reading this novel that takes place in the past, do the events still feel relevant to you?
Quote #9
"Now and then, when he's been fighting with his dad and is really strung out, Paul goes up on the gay stroll in Toledo. Usually it happens after Paul's dad gets on his ass for not being all manly and stuff. Like whenever Paul gets a lot of attention, say, when he has a big part in a play, or a solo in a choir concert, or when it's a home game and he's the drum major for the halftime show, Mr. Knauss catches Paul afterward and tells him he's embarrassed the whole family by being Mister Big Public Screaming F*****, and yells at Paul, and usually tells him to never come home and locks him out that night." (17.30)
Being a gay teenager in the early 1970s was way different than it is now. While Paul's dad is clearly abandoning his son, his behavior was probably par for the course for parents of teens who identified as gay at the time. Really, it's too bad Paul couldn't have been around in the 2010s instead of the 1970s. With his musical abilities, he would have fit right in on Glee.
Quote #10
I still couldn't quite get used to the idea that someone else knew, I mean besides my mother, and Neil, and her drunk asshole friends, I mean. Someone that wasn't throwing it in my face, or telling me to stop thinking I was better than they were.
Someone that said they were going to try to do something.
That was the really hard idea to latch onto. (26.42-44)
Dang. This is probably the saddest line in the whole book. We've seen Karl battle for the past five days and almost four years with his mom's nutso-drunken-cat-lady-ness while every adult in town turns a blind eye. Now, someone's finally stepping up to the plate.