How we cite our quotes: Paragraph
Quote #1
Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: she will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eying her sister with a mixture of envy and awe. She thinks her sister has held life in the palm of one hand, that 'no' is a word the world never learned to say to her. (2)
So check it out: this quotation does double duty. Not only does it give us a really good idea about what Maggie and Dee's relationship is like right off the bat, it also shows how sensitive the narrator is to what her daughter is thinking and feeling. Sentences in short stories sometimes work harder because they're, well, shorter, so we should always keep our eyes peeled for stuff like this when we're reading them.
Quote #2
You've no doubt seen those TV shows where the child who has 'made it' is confronted, as a surprise, by her own mother and father, tottering in weakly from backstage. (A pleasant surprise, of course: What would they do if parent and child came on the show only to curse out and insult each other?) (3)
Clearly this story was written before Jerry Springer.
Quote #3
On TV mother and child embrace and smile into each other's faces. Sometimes the mother and father weep, the child wraps them in her arms and leans across the table to tell how she would not have made it without their help. I have seen these programs.
Sometimes I dream a dream in which Dee and I are suddenly brought together on a TV program of this sort. (3-4)
Sigh. The narrator wants Dee to recognize the sacrifices she's made for her so badly that the lady fantasizes about it in her spare time, which is pretty sad. Do you think she'll continue to have this dream after the story ends (you know, like, if this character continued to live on in some fictional universe)?