How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Uncle Big attended the door as people stopped by to pay their respects. Gram and I could hear his booming voice again and again, "Oh a ham, how thoughtful, thank you, come in." As the days went on Big's reaction to the hams got more dramatic for our benefit. Each time he exclaimed "A ham!" Gram and I found each other's eyes and had to suppress a rush of inappropriate giggles. (3.45)
Losing a loved one isn't funny, but some of the rituals of mourning definitely are. We love Uncle Big for trying to make Lennie and Gram laugh and have a momentary break from all the tragedy.
Quote #2
He looks from Toby to me. "No way out of this but through… for any of us." He says it like Moses, so we both nod as if we've been bestowed with a great wisdom. (3.49)
Lennie doesn't know this, but Uncle Big didn't make up this particular piece of wisdom. The line "The best way out is always through" comes from the Robert Frost poem "A Servant to Servants," but has been quoted independently so often that it stands on its own. It's a comforting line, in a way, because it implies that you can come out the other side of a bad situation.
Quote #3
"…A sorrowing heart poisons recipes."
This has proven to be true, but for Gram. Everything she cooks now tastes like ashes. (3.49-50)
Okay, so Gram's food might not literally taste like ashes, but it's a handy metaphor for food that's lost its magic. A good indicator of how Gram is feeling in a particular scene is whether the word "ash" is used in the description of her food.
Quote #4
The chicken tastes like chicken, and the plum tart tastes like plum tart. It's too soon for there not to be one bit of ash. (12.40)
The sudden lack of "ash" taste in Gram's food is probably a sign that Gram is feeling okay. She's being social again, having cooked for all the Fontaine boys, and it looks like Lennie secretly resents her for not being as sad as she is.
Quote #5
I'm sure a shrink would love this, all of it, I think, looking over at Toby. She'd probably tell me I was trying to take Bailey's place. Or worse, competing with her in a way I never could when she was alive. But is that it? It doesn't feel like it. When I wear her clothes, I just feel safer, like she's whispering in my ear. (21.17)
This reminds us of another storyline in which the clinical description of something is not the truth the Walker family chooses to acknowledge: Lennie's mother. Lennie's mother's abandonment could be seen as stemming from some sort of mental health issue, but the Walker family chooses to think of it as Paige having the family "restless gene." Is this another case where Lennie should ignore the imaginary psychiatrist in her mind and write her own story? Or is there something to the idea of Lennie trying to take Bailey's place?
Quote #6
The truck blasts through the trees and I stick my hand out the window, trying to catch the wind in my palm like Bails used to, missing her, missing the girl I used to be around her, missing who we all used to be. We will never be those people again. She took them all with her. (28.72)
Check out the long sentence that moves from one thought to the next—it sort of reminds of cars passing Lennie and Toby as they drive. Also the length of the first sentence makes the second, short sentence stand out, giving it extra importance. Lennie realizes that everyone in her family has changed in major ways since Bailey's death.
Quote #7
I'm becoming accustomed to The Sanctum without her and I hate it. Hate that when I stand in her closet fumbling from piece to piece, my face pressed into the fabrics, that I can't find one shirt or dress that still has her scent, and it's my fault. They all smell like me now. (30.8)
Lennie keeps all of Bailey's things in the places they were when she died so that she can hold onto the feeling that Bailey could return at any moment. Without being able to smell Bailey's scent, she seems farther away. It's like her death is becoming more of an unavoidable fact.
Quote #8
In fact, maybe Bails would like that I fell in love with Joe so soon after she died. Maybe it's just the exact inappropriate way my sister would want to be mourned by me. (31.26)
Knowing what you know about Bailey, do you think Lennie is right? Would Bailey approve?
Quote #9
Everything I haven't allowed myself to imagine rushes me: I think about airless empty lungs. Lipstick on her unmoving mouth. The silver bracelet that Toby had given her on her pulseless wrist. Her belly ring. Hair and nails growing in the dark. Her body with no thoughts in it. No time in it. No love in it. Six feet of earth crushing down on her. (34.22)
Lennie's been avoiding the cemetery until now, and this passage explains why: Death can be really creepy. But this passage is juxtaposed, right after, with the natural beauty of Bailey's gravesite. What do you think this juxtaposition means?
Quote #10
It's such a colossal effort not to be haunted by what's lost, but to be enchanted by what was. (38.20)
So it's the last chapter of the book, and Lennie's doing a lot better. She's talking to Gram again, she's made up with everyone she's previously had tension with, and she and Joe are head-over-heels for each other. Yet she is having a moment of intense sadness about her sister's death—no matter how much time passes, it's still hard not to fall into sadness. Coping with the reality of Bailey's death doesn't get easier with time.