How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Inside the house, near the hearth, Amiel had built a sort of fire pit with rocks. It was a safer place to cook than most campsites, really, because there was concrete all around, and I longed to be there when he had a fire going, when we could be cowgirl and cowboy and pretend we weren't a few miles from two million people. We stood in the sunlit, roofless house and looked down at the charred rocks. (33.41)
When Pearl tells Amiel that she loves it in his home, we think she means that she loves spending time with Amiel no matter where it is. People might try to tell Pearl that she and Amiel are from different worlds, but she just wants to be with him anywhere in any world.
Quote #8
The fire engine passed. Then another. And another. I didn't raise my hand or step out of the trees. I did what I thought was to love him, and I followed Amiel back down the bank toward the sheltering reeds. (47.7)
Pearl decides that she wants to be with Amiel instead of anyone else during the fire. She's in love, after all. But notice that she says she stuck with him because she "thought" that was love, which makes it sound like it really wasn't. There's definitely a part of us that questions whether putting yourself in danger is really love.
Quote #9
I thought that Agnès was lucky in one thing: Hoyt hadn't left her for his lover as my father had left us. That was better, wasn't it? I knew what he'd done, and Robby knew, but Agnès didn't, and I added this to all the other qualities that made my uncle a good man. (56.14)
At Hoyt's funeral, Pearl finds herself thinking about the nature of love. She decides Agnès and Robby are better off than her mom and she in this department since her uncle wasn't having an affair with Mary Beth after all. It makes Pearl realize he really was a good guy.