Dark Water Youth Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

Everything was perfect until eighth grade. Greenie was an early bloomer, and while I stayed the same shape, skinny as a tree that grew straight up, the layer of fat around Greenie's middle seemed to move up to her breasts. […] By the end of the year, the sort of boys who didn't do their homework began to hover around her locker, never the least interested in me. (13.4)

When Greenie and Pearl were younger, they did everything together. Greenie matured faster than her pal, though, and things got a little awkward. It's just one of those things when you're growing up—sometimes friends reach benchmarks before you, and it's tough to not let it get to you.

Quote #5

"I thank you all for joining us tonight to celebrate mon petit Robby, not petit so longer," Agnès was saying regretfully, and Robby stood up politely and smiled his gray-eyed smile, which finally landed on me. He read my lips well enough to know I either had something to say or was dying of anaphylactic shock. (15.52)

Robby's party highlights his own transition into adulthood—or at least that's what his mom tells everyone. Notice how she says he's no longer little now that he's seventeen. Sure enough, Robby is already mature and knowledgeable in a lot of ways that Pearl and her friends aren't.

Quote #6

"It is always the pity when my husband hires young ones," Agnès said to her windshield and me. "I tell him, non. The young ones, non. Only the married who are having other family here, like brothers and uncles. This one, he is new, non?" (23.1)

Agnès points out how sad it is for young people to work as undocumented day laborers instead of being filled with hope and promise for their bright futures. We'd like to point out how she calls Amiel "young one" even though he's two years older than Pearl. It reminds us just how young the two lovebirds are by adult standards.