How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
It got in time so that she believed these stories she made up. Great-Uncle Tom became as real to her as her father, Chick, and a good deal more important in her thoughts. But whether the tales she told made any impression on Tom was hard to say.
He liked just as much the stories she told about herself when she was young. […] (2.2-3)
Even as early as the second chapter, we get an indication that family history will be an important factor in the novel. Polly Ann names Tom after her great-uncle (whom she's heard stories of from her own mother but never met) and she also tells him many stories from her own childhood. Placing these stories so early in the book gives us a clue that characters from the past will have a strong presence in the book, even if they're never physically involved in the story.
Quote #2
She dealt out some more cards. "But there's quite a lot of money here later on. You ain't going to go around like a low-down Dolan any more." (6.24)
The prophecy that Tom gets from the Widow Breen isn't just that he'll get rich. It's that he'll get rich and finally be able to shake his family's past. Tom has inherited poverty from his careless grandfather and deadbeat father. According to the Widow Breen, the future will let him leave that legacy behind. It's like being told you'll hit the lottery way, way in advance.
Quote #3
[Mr. Ackerman] didn't say anything; it didn't seem like a proper time to do so, with the old man rustling around with his thoughts and memories, mumbling to himself something about "a scalawag, that Chick was," half a-grin. (8.32)
When Tom goes to get a job at the mill, Mr. Ackerman asks who his father and grandfather are. Turns out Mr. Ackerman and Chick, Tom's grandfather, were downright chummy back in the day. Tom brings back the memory of the rowdy times Mr. Ackerman used to have with Chick, showing that the past is different depending on your perspective. Tom's gotten used to thinking of Chick as his no-good grandfather, but Mr. Ackerman remembers him as a friend from younger days. Funny how that works out.