How we cite our quotes: Chapter.Paragraph
Quote #4
"Child, if your mama was dead when you were born, then you were never born. It's as plain as plain as that."
He said it, and I knew it was so. (3.81-82)
Before you get too hard on Granddaddy Opal for saying this, remember that he's been through a lot with Dane and Gigi and is probably experiencing some confusing emotions about having his granddaughter under his roof. Still, that doesn't excuse the statement. In saying that Miracle was never born, he unknowingly confirms her suspicions that she isn't real.
Quote #5
I slipped the cloves under my pillow and went to sleep. I dreamed a shadow was chasing me. trying to run me down. When I awoke, I found my shirt soaked in sweat. I remembered the shadow and I knew the shadow was mine. It was me, unborn, the truth about who I really was, an unborn child who had accidentally slipped out of place—a mistake. That's what I knew: I wasn't real, and this thought scared me so much I wanted to jump out of bed and run away somewhere. (4.13)
Gigi may mean to empower Miracle through the story of her birth, but this dream proves the harmful effects that it's had on her instead. She doesn't feel miraculous or special—she just feels like a mistake, something that never should have happened.
Quote #6
While I was walking home, I knew a giant eraser followed behind me, erasing the dance class, rubbing it into dust and brushing it away, leaving behind an empty sidewalk, an empty past. Later, I started to run home every afternoon, afraid the eraser would catch up to me and erase me, too. (4.79)
While we totally get that Miracle either takes secret dance lessons or no dance lessons at all, we also think that having to keep such an important part of her life a secret does a lot of damage to her already weak sense of self. She's clearly passionate about dance, and if her favorite activity doesn't exist, it only provides further evidence that she doesn't either.