Quote 4
Quote 5
I would have liked to tell Mr. Palmer just how old and feeble that joke is, but instead I said, "Oh, of course, sir! How clever of you!" because I had learned a thing or two during my time at the Glenmore. About when to tell the truth and when not to. (8.6)
One mark of maturity is learning the rules of the game. Mattie has learned how to work the dining room to her advantage, though she never really develops the mercenary nature of either Weaver or Fran. She's too earnest and good-hearted for that.
Quote 6
My voice trembled as I spoke, as it did whenever I was angry. "I feel let down sometimes. The people in books—the heroes—they're always so… heroic. And I try to be, but…"
"… you're not," Lou said, licking deviled ham off her fingers.
"… no, I'm not. People in books are good and noble and unselfish, and people aren't that way ... and I feel, well… hornswoggled sometimes. By Jane Austen and Charles Dickens and Louisa May Alcott. Why do writers make things sugary when life isn't that way?" I asked too loudly. "Why don't they tell the truth? Why don't they tell how a pigpen looks after the sow's eaten her children? Or how it is for a girl when her baby won't come out? Or that cancer has a smell to it? All those books, Miss Wilcox," I said, pointing at a pile of them, "and I bet not one of them will tell you what cancer smells like. I can, though. It stinks. Like meat gone bad and dirty clothes and bog water all mixed together. Why doesn't anyone tell you that?" (22.glean.77-79)
Mattie takes issue with the false but beautiful world presented to her in books. Previously, she was okay with the characters and the authors' choices, but now she's beginning to question the verity of some of what she's read. In fact, Mattie's starting to look far more critically at literature than she ever has before, and critical thinking is one marker of adulthood.