The View from Saturday Identity Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

There is not a worse feeling in this world than the feeling that someone knows something about you that he has known for almost a whole summer and has kept to himself. Even sharing what he knows about you with others is not as bad as knowing something and not telling you he knows. All you can think about is what he was really thinking the whole time […]. ("Nadia Tells of Turtle Love".109)

Here, Nadia finds out that Ethan knows something about her that she didn't know he knew. (Whew—tongue twister.) Weirdly, it seems to change her whole opinion of him—like now she doesn't know him at all.

Quote #5

Mother avoids the subdivision as if it were a toxic waste dump. She refers to the people who live in The Farm as them. In her mind, there is a big difference between them and us, between living on a farm and living in The Farm. […]

The way I see it, the difference between farmers and suburbanites is the difference in the way we feel about dirt. To them, the earth is something to be respected and preserved, but dirt gets no respect. A farmer likes dirt. ("Ethan Explains the B and B Inn".11-12)

Ethan is careful in the first paragraph to point out that these ideas are his mother's. He even uses the phrase "[i]n her mind." Still, Ethan may say he doesn't want to be a farmer, but he sure talks like one.

Quote #6

I was the son who was scheduled to inherit the farm because Luke was scheduled for greater things. I knew that as soon as I announced to my family what I wanted to do, I would have to be prepared to pay my own way. ("Ethan Explains the B and B Inn".77)

Ethan thinks he's supposed to take over the family business because he's second best, but we have to wonder if Ethan's family feels the same way. Do they think that passing down the business they've nurtured is offering second best?