How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
So shoot me and get it over with. I wouldn't actually care if you did. In a way I'm already dead. I used to be really, really hot. Because of the baby I'm as fat as a wrestler. I dropped out, I've been to exactly zero parties, and I've been asked out exactly zero times, including by the scum who got me pregnant. (11.1-2)
Maricela compares being left out of the social events to being "already dead." That's a pretty hefty comment. What do you think of this metaphor?
Quote #8
And for just that minute I stopped wishing my baby would die. (11.8)
Maricela sure does have a complex relationship with death. When she gets pregnant, she isn't happy about it at all. And she's pretty honest with us about how she wishes she would have a miscarriage. But by the end of her story, Maricela might be changing her tune a bit. What's with the shift in attitude?
Quote #9
We both planted carrots. When her hundreds of seedlings came up in a row, I was very surprised that she did not thin them—pulling out all but one healthy-looking plant each few inches, to give them room to grow. I asked her. She looked down at them and said she knew she ought to do it, but that this task reminded her too closely of her concentration camp, where the prisoners were inspected each morning and divided into two lines—the healthy to live and the others to die. (12.5)
Amir's Polish friend doesn't want to kill any of her growing carrots. You see, she associates thinning out the carrots with her terrible experiences in a concentration camp. We've seen characters think about people and plants dying before, but the Polish woman's past makes this comparison extra excruciating.