How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Whatever it was, whatever that thing is Mr. James took us in the woods that day to find, whether it's abandon, or passion, whether it's innovation, or simply courage, Joe has it.
His ass is in the wind. Mine is in second chair. (5.22-23)
Joe just did a trumpet solo in band, and in addition to being cute and French, he's a virtuoso musician. (Yeah, we know—some people have all the luck.) Lennie's making a distinction between the talent he has and herself, implying that she doesn't have his kind of talent. At this point in the book, we don't know why Lennie didn't make first chair.
Quote #2
He starts to laugh. "God, I feel like I'm pressuring you to have sex or something." Every ounce of blood in a ten mile radius rushes to my cheeks. "C'mon. I know you want to…" he jokes, raising his eyebrows like a total dork. (9.68)
Sure, Joe's being adorkable, but is his sex analogy so far off? Soloing for just one other person is intimate, and the possibility of messing up can be totally vulnerability inducing. Plus, by now we know that music is something Lennie used to be passionate about, so there's even passion. No wonder Lennie reacts so strongly to people asking her to play.
Quote #3
"I hate soloing, not that you'd understand that. It's just so…" I'm waving my arm around, unable to find the words. But then I point my hand in the direction of Flying Man's. "So like jumping from rock to rock in the river, but in this kind of thick fog, and you're all alone, and every single step is…" (9.88)
This is the first time Lennie tries to explain not wanting to play music—with an analogy almost as intense as Joe's. Her image of jumping from rock to rock over a river in a fog implies danger, and the very real possibility of falling in the water. What do you think the water symbolizes in Lennie's mind?
Quote #4
I can hear his heart beating the whole time and I'm thinking, Why not? I could step out of this sad life like it's an old sorry dress, and go to Paris with Joe—we could get on a plane and fly over the ocean and land in France. We could do it today even. I have money saved. I have a beret. A hot black bra. I know how to say Je t'aime. I love coffee and chocolate and Baudelaire. And I've watched Bailey enough to know how to wrap a scarf. We could really do it, and the possibility makes me feel so giddy I think I might catapult into the air. (15.22)
What strikes us about this passage is that it's really different from the way Lennie's been thinking and feeling in all the pages leading up to it. She's been depressed, agonizing over her sister's death, and this is the first time she has an extended daydream about something happy. Joe makes her think in a different way—he makes her imagine possibilities.
Quote #5
"[…] you know how some people have natural tendencies, how I paint and garden, how Big's an arborist, how you, Bailey, want to grow up and be an actress—"
"I'm going to Julliard," she told us.
Gram smiled. "Yes, we know, Miss Hollywood. Or Miss Broadway, I should say."
"Our mom?" I reminded them before we ended up talking some more about that dumb school. All I'd hoped was that it was in walking distance if Bailey was going there. (18.21-24)
Lennie's already told us that Julliard was Bailey's dream, but in this flashback, we get to see Bailey dreaming it. It seems like Bailey's dream is pretty abstract. She's only eleven years old. She just says she's going to Julliard—we don't see her working hard to qualify, or even knowing what it takes to qualify. It's a kid dream, not a real plan.
Quote #6
One time after I improvise alone for a while, he exclaims, "Your tone is awesome, so so lonely, like, I don't know, a day without birds or something," but I don't feel lonely at all. I feel like Bailey is listening. (18.40)
After avoiding really playing music for so long out of loyalty to her sister, Lennie learns something important when she finally does play: Playing the clarinet does the opposite of what she feared. It actually makes her feel closer to Bailey.
Quote #7
Big studies my burning face, then says gently, "Whose dream, Len?" He positions his hands like he's playing an invisible clarinet. "Because the only one I used to see working sooooooooo hard around here was you." (26.23)
Big confirms what we already saw in the earlier flashback: Julliard was not a concrete dream that Bailey was actively working toward. Lennie was the one working hard, with her clarinet lessons, and she gave up on a very real dream because of a pipe dream her eleven-year-old sister had.
Quote #8
Maybe he's right and she didn't have it—whatever it is. Maybe what my sister wanted was to stay here and get married and have a family.
Maybe that was her color of extraordinary. (27.4-5)
Finally, Lennie's starting to separate her dream from her sister's. She even sounds positive about the whole Bailey-being-engaged thing here, which is different from her initial what? Looks like she's figuring out that not all dreams look the same, and that being a mother and going to a good school are equally valid things to want.
Quote #9
"No." My voice surprises me again with its certainty. "I want the solos, Rachel." At that she stops fiddling with her clarinet, rests it on the stand, and looks up at me. "And I'm starting up again with Marguerite." This I decided on the way to rehearsal. I have her undivided totally freaked-out attention now. "I'm going to try for All-State too," I tell her. This, however, is news to me. (35.9)
Go Lennie—get it, girl. Taking back your dream and confronting the mean girl at the same time? So satisfying.
Quote #10
"I'd love to go to Julliard," I tell Sarah. There. Finally. "But any good conservatory would be okay." I just want to study music: what life, what living itself sounds like. (36.8)
Lennie's come a long way from the beginning, when she refused to practice or even discuss why she didn't make first chair. Also, notice that Lennie uses the word "life" when describing music? In a book about her sister's death? Maybe music is her way of moving forward.