How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Title.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Pa does not like my aunt Josie, and he did not want me to clean her house. He said I was not a slave—which was rich, coming from him—but there was not much either of us could do about it. (12.UriahtheHittite,stinkpot,warthog.10)
Mattie started cleaning her Aunt Josie's house before her mother, Josie's sister, died, and she keeps it up because she knows her mom would want her to. How does Mattie's commitment to Aunt Josie, a woman she doesn't really like or respect, make it harder for her to shirk her duties at the farm and follow her dreams? Also, Mattie thinks of herself as a slave, but clearly her Pa doesn't. Why might this difference of opinion exist?
Quote #5
"You are just as bad as your no-account brother," she finally said. "Selfish and thoughtless. It must come from the Gokey side, because it doesn't come from the Robertsons. What on earth can you be thinking? Leaving your sisters when they need you? And for a terrible place like New York!" She nodded at the figurine I was clutching. "Pride. That's very fitting. Pride goeth before a fall. You're on a very high horse, Mathilda. I don't know who put you there, but you'd best get down off it. And fast." (12.UriahtheHittite,stinkpot,warthog.61)
Aunt Josie often functions as the mouthpiece for social values in the novel, so what we hear coming out of her mouth is often what other people around her think. But Aunt Josie latches on to Mattie's conflict: abandon her sisters and Pa for her dream, or stay and fulfill the responsibilities dictated to her by her gender and social norms.
Quote #6
It had been years since Pa worked a drive, but I could tell from the look on his face as my uncle talked that he missed it. He flapped a hand at the stories and tried to seem all disapproving, but I saw the pride in his eyes as Uncle Fifty told us that there was no one more skillful with a bateau, no one faster or more fearless. He said my pa was the most surefooted riverman he'd ever seen, that he stuck to logs like bark. He said he'd seen him dance a hornpipe on a log once, and do a cartwheel and a handspring, too. (16.recouriumphoration.59)
We don't often see this, but Pa has also sacrificed dreams for responsibility. When his wife realized that he'd had one close-call too many, she demanded that he quit working the river (an incredibly dangerous job) or she and the girls would leave him. So he quit something he loved to save something he loved more. It's a mark of Mattie's maturity that she is able to see beyond her own dreams to the sacrifices that others make for responsibility and duty.