How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Title.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Pa looked at Royal, his shirt soaked with sweat, and my hands, dirty from the stones, and Pleasant unhitched, and put it all together. "I'm obliged to you," he said. "It's a son's work, planting. Not a daughter's. Thought I had a son to do it."
"Pa," I said quietly.
"Don't understand why he left. Couldn't tear me away from land like this," Royal said.
I bristled at that. I was angry at Lawton for leaving, too. But Royal was not family and therefore had no right to speak against him. (5.misnomer.49-52)
Family gets super complicated. Mattie doesn't like Pa speaking against her brother, and though she's upset with Lawton, too, when Royal disparages his choice, Mattie wants to defend her brother. It's usually like that with our own families. They might be idiots, but they're our idiots, and everyone else would be wise to watch their mouths.
Quote #2
There was a bill of sale on top of it, and money—a dirty, wrinkled bill. Ten dollars. For twelve gallons of maple syrup. I knew he'd been hoping for twenty.
I looked at him then. He looked tired. So tired. And worn and old.
"Mattie… Mattie, I'm sorry… I didn't mean to… ," he said, reaching for me.
I shook him off. "Never mind, Pa. Go to bed. We've got the upper field to plow tomorrow." (10.plaintive.14-17)
Pa's drunk here and has earned less money than he expected he would for the syrup he's made. Which is why he hits Mattie when he finds out she's earned money and hasn't shared it with the family. So we've got the trouble that lack of money can bring a family, combined with the responsibility Pa has to shoulder raising four girls without a wife, and Maggie recognizes how much of a toll this takes on him. It's pretty generous of her.
Quote #3
"You never a barrel of monkey, Michel, but you better den dis. What da hell wrong wid you? Dose girls, dey lose someone, too. Dey lose der mamma, den der brothair. But dey not turn into miserable stinking ghost like you."
"You've had too much whiskey, Francis. As usual."
"Not so much dat I don't know what I see."
"There's plenty you don't see." (16.recouriumphoration.98-101)
Sometimes it's only our family members who can get away with telling us harsh truths. Uncle Fifty, who has arrived after a lucrative logging job, is the only one who can tell Pa to his face how he's changed from the man he used to be, how he's let his grief for his wife and son color every aspect of his life. And then there's this idea of haunting that's repeated when Uncle Fifty calls Pa a "ghost." Pa is haunted: by his wife, by his guilt, and by the blame he heaps on himself for the dissolution of his family.