How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
It must have been like what he felt when he stood around his daddy's house, his head hanging down. (14.21)
Anney thinks that Glen's relationship with his father is an excuse for his behavior. Bone doesn't agree, but she does sympathize with how it feels not to be loved by your family.
Quote #5
I felt mean and powerful and proud of all of us, all the Boatwrights who had ever gone to jail, fought back when they hadn't a chance, and still held on to their pride. (15.26)
Here, it seems like Bone is evoking her own feelings of powerlessness in her relationship with Glen. We can understand family pride, but later (in the next quote, in fact) she will complain to Raylene about the things that the Boatwrights do. What has changed between these two points in the novel?
Quote #6
"Other people don't go beating on each other all the time," I told her. "They don't get falling-down drunk, shoot each other, and then laugh about it. They don't pick up and leave their husbands in the middle of the night and then never explain. They don't move out alone to the edge of town without a husband or children or even a good friend, run around all the time in overalls, and sell junk by the side of the road!" (18.57)
Bone is struggling with what lots of kids struggle with: she wants normalcy, especially in the wake of Glen's abuse. She's getting to that age when all you want is to be like all the other kids, with normal interests, a normal family... normal everything, really. She doesn't realize yet that no one is "normal" in that way. She's still in the process of learning how to assess people—even her own family.