How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Mama hated to be called trash, hated the memory of every day she'd ever spent bent over other peoples' peanuts and strawberry plants while they stood tall and looked at her like she was a rock on the ground. The stamp on that birth certificate burned her like the stamp she knew they'd tried to put on her. No-good, lazy, shiftless. (1.10)
For Anney, Bone's on-paper illegitimacy is society's way of reminding her of her place in a way that seems "official." No wonder she's so eager to change it.
Quote #2
"We're not bad people," Mama told us. "We're not even really poor. Anybody says something to you, you keep that in mind. We're not bad people. And we pay our way. We just can't always pay when people want."
Reese and I nodded earnestly, agreeing wordlessly, but we didn't believe her. We knew what the neighbors called us, what Mama wanted to protect us from. We knew who we were. (6.52)
Look at how "what the neighbors called us" and "who we were" become the same thing in this quote, as though one determines the other. Anney tries to give her kids an alternative by telling them that they are not what other people say they are, but she doesn't seem to win out.
Quote #3
How could Reese and I be worthy of all that, the roses in their gardens, the sunlight on those polished windows and flowered drapes, the china plates gleaming behind glass cabinets? I stared in at the spines of those books, wanting it all, wanting the furniture, the garden, the big open kitchen with its dishes for everyday and others for special, the freezer in the utility room and the plushy seats on all the dining-room chairs. (6.63)
Does Bone actually want these things, or does she want to be the kind of person who has all those things? What is the difference? Why do possessions define a person's identity here?