How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
It is a story of how these three became one thing, so that in Tortilla Flat if you speak of Danny's house you do not mean a structure of wood flaked with old whitewash, overgrown with an ancient untrimmed rose of Castile. No, when you speak of Danny's house you are understood to mean a unit of which the parts are men, from which came sweetness and joy, philanthropy and, in the end, a mystic sorrow. (Preface.1)
The "three" the first sentence refers to includes Danny, Danny's friends, and Danny's house. This shows the way that the physical house can also represent the relationships that it contains, rolling everyone and everything into one collective whole. The adjectives used to describe the actual house—"flaked," "old," "overgrown," "ancient," and "untrimmed"—show the difference between the run-down physical house and the living, growing friendships inside of it.
Quote #2
Danny and Pilon stood in front of the paintless picket fence and looked with admiration at the property, a low house streaked with old whitewash, uncurtained windows blank and blind. But a great pink rose of Castile was on the porch, and grandfather geraniums grew among the weeds in the front yard. (2.2)
The house has an uninviting feel in this description. It lacks paint and curtains, both elements that show that a house is inhabited and that someone cares about it. What Danny's house does have are natural, wild signs of life, like plants. This gives us the idea that his house isn't going to be of the cutesy, white-picket-fence variety; it's going to be a wild and overgrown but (depending on how you look it) maybe a kind of beautiful home.
Quote #3
No more would Danny break windows now that he had windows of his own to break. (2.7)
Here's a short sentence that packs a punch. Before Danny inherits the house, he's a vagabond, a rambler, a wanderer… you get the idea. But the minute he becomes a homeowner, even though it's against his will, he's immediately filled with a sense of responsibility. He'll never again be an adolescent who can act with no consequences.