How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Anyway I seem to be doing less and less right, I'm getting so that no matter what I do I can't please the Establishment. (68.2)
This is a pretty common teenage sentiment, if you ask us. It's mostly due to the expectations parents have for their children (because Establishment = Parental Units), and the necessary acts of rebellion kids go through during puberty. Heck, we remember the first time we snuck down to the clubhouse carrying a watermelon and saw a new form of dancing… wait… that wasn't us. Carry on.
Quote #8
I'm lonely, I'm heartbroken, I hate this whole number and everything it stands for, I feel I'm wasting my life away. I want to go back to my family and my school. I don't want to just sit listening to other kids who can go home for Christmas and who can write and phone when I can't and why can't I? I probably haven't done anything that these kids haven't done. All dopers are part-time sewer dwellers, the two go hand in hand together. (113.1)
Alice is never satisfied. She hates being a lame-o with her family, so she runs away. But now that she's living the hippie dream, she's envious of the square kids who have families to spend the holidays with. Pick your poison, Alice.
Quote #9
I haven't any clothes except these I had on when I left home and I'm getting so damned dirty I think they've grown on me. It was snowing in Denver, but it's so penetratingly damp here in Oregon it's a hell of a sight worse. I've got a f***ing head cold and I feel miserable, and my period has started and I don't have any Tampax. Hell, I wish I had a shot (154)
This kind of misery is what happens when you run away from home with only twenty bucks and the clothes on your back. We're kind of confused as to what she thought would happen.