Family Quotes in The Art of Racing in the Rain

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

The life that Eve had inside her was something she had made, She and Denny had made it together. I wished, at the time, that the baby would look like me. (6.9)

By saying that he wishes that the baby looked more like him, Enzo reveals his wish to integrate himself into the family better, to connect to the family that Denny and Eve are building together—and that Enzo might fear they are building without him.

Quote #5

It was loud and crazy and all the children let me play with them and wrestle on the rug, and I let them dress me up with a hat and a sweat jacket and Zoë called me her big brother. (7.19)

The turning point here is that Zoë, the cause of Enzo's initial worry that he might never be loved as much as the unborn child, already loves Enzo so much that it's clear he never even needed to worry about anything in the first place. Enzo probably makes a fantastic big brother.

Quote #6

I could see that Denny was stuck. He had agreed to have Eve stay with Maxwell and Trish, and now they wanted Zoë, too. If he objected, he would be keeping a mother and a daughter apart. If he accepted their proposal, he would be pushed to the periphery; he would become an outsider in his own family. (23.45)

Just as Denny's conception of family is small, so is Maxwell and Trish's, and we've seen time and again that they don't believe he has a place in what they consider their family. As we've said before, it's because they're jerks.