How we cite our quotes:
Quote #7
(Cath still found this incredibly embarrassing; it was like their mom was so self-centered, she couldn't be trusted not to desecrate a national tragedy with her own issues.) (13.17)
What's worse than having your mom leave you? Having her leave on 9/11. Like, the 9/11, not an anniversary. Ugh.
Quote #8
"You don't get to be the mother if you show up after the kids are already grown up. She's like all those animals at the end of the story who show up to eat the Little Red Hen's bread." (14.77)
The Little Red Hen is a capitalist epic of a children's book. Basically, none of the other animals want to help the hen plant the wheat and harvest the grain, but they all want to eat the bread, so the hen is all, no worky, no bready. Yes, in this analogy, our narrator is bread, and her mom is communist livestock.
Quote #9
"Why this? You're the one who keeps reminding me that we're two separate people, that we don't have to do the same things all the time. So, fine. You can go have a relationship with the parent who abandoned us, and I'll stay here and take care of the one who picked up the pieces." (20.64)
Cath and Wren are reversing roles big time here. Wren still needs to be the child, even if her mom's not much of a mom, while Cath, on the other hand, takes on a parental role with their sick dad.