How we cite our quotes: Chapter.Paragraph
Quote #1
Granddaddy Opal's hair looked shocked as if an electric current were running through his head. His hands were trembling and he brought them down on my handlebars, so close to mine I could feel their heat.
"You ain't going to have any more of these bruises, you hear?" […]
"Yes. Yes, we're through with that wild music anyway. We're doing something else now."
"You durn sure or I don't know what!" he said. (6.61-64)
Granddaddy Opal's stunned reaction to Miracle's bruises from dance class seems to really disturb her—largely because she's never seen an expression of concern and love before. His emotions are a cross between anger and sadness, as though he's realizing for the first time that Miracle is a child deprived of affection.
Quote #2
I sat up and faced the wig heads. "I don't believe in love," I told them. "It's not real. It's not a live thing […] You can't touch it, can you? […] You can't hold it in your hand, can you? […] Love is make-believe." (15.3)
Miracle's spiel to the wig heads about her inability to believe in love reveals that she doesn't really understand abstract concepts. Because the world she's grown up in has been extremely unstable and her needs haven't always been met, love isn't just something she doesn't understand, but something she's never really experienced.
Quote #3
They slammed a lot of doors back and forth and Uncle Toole had to sleep in the living room on one of his busted-up sofas. Love wasn't real. If they just realized that, if they could just understand that very simple thing, they'd never fight again. (15.9)
What's funny about Miracle's rationalization here is that if love isn't real, then why are Aunt Casey and Uncle Toole even together? Why did they even get married to begin with? They had to have been in love once, right? Maybe? No? Miracle is so distanced from the idea of love that she doesn't seem to grasp the concept. And frankly, when it comes to Casey and Toole, we don't really either.