How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Title.Paragraph)
Quote #1
It wasn't like this when Mamma was alive. Somehow she provided good meals all through the winter and still managed to have meat left in the cellar come spring. I am nowhere near as capable as my mother was, and if I ever forget it, I have Lou to remind me. Or Pa. Not that he says the sorts of things Lou does, but you can tell by the look on his face when he sits down to eat that he isn't fond of mush day in and day out. (2.fractious.40)
What a double-edged sword. Mattie needs to step into her mother's shoes after she dies, but no one is willing to cut her some slack. It just goes to show how much the women who live in the region do and how little they get recognized for it.
Quote #2
"Go round cringing like a dog, Matt," he said, "and folks will treat you like one. Stand up like a man, and they'll treat you like a man." That was fine for Weaver, but I wondered sometimes, How exactly do you stand up like a man when you're a girl? (3.abecedarian.55)
Once again, Weaver says some wise words, implying that people's views of themselves and how they comport themselves is a pretty big social cue for how others can and should treat them. But Mattie, too, strikes at the heart of one of the social issues in the book: How do these rules change between men and women? Do you think it matters that Weaver is a black man?
Quote #3
Royal gave me a look over his shoulder—a wincing, withering look—that made me feel like the biggest babbling blabberer in all of Herkimer County. I closed my mouth and wondered what it was girls like Belinda Becker had to say that made boys want to listen to them. I knew a lot of words—a lot more than Belinda, who giggled all the time and said things like "swell" and "chum" and "hopelessly dead broke"—but not the right ones. (5.misnomer.29)
Mattie's experiencing her first crush on Royal Loomis, and she's telling him about her word of the day. But Mattie realizes that she doesn't fit the ideal of femininity that her society holds for her: she's too smart, too ambitious, and she doesn't flirt with boys. It doesn't help that Royal disparages Mattie's interests and identity, either. In fact, the desire to fit in and have a relationship causes Mattie to call into question who she really is and what it means to be a woman.