How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Momma must have gone away on purpose. (But she loved them, loved them all.) Why else the addresses on the bags? Why else tell them to mind Dicey? (Mothers didn't do things like going off. It was crazy. Was Momma crazy?) How did she expect Dicey to take care of them? What did she expect Dicey to do? Take them to Bridgeport, of course. (Dump it all on Dicey, that was what Momma did.) (1.1.39)
Yeah, this is probably what we'd think if our mom left us alone to fend for ourselves in a strange place. Dicey has to spend a little time processing the gravity of their abandonment before she's able to decide what to do.
Quote #2
"I'm not going anywhere," Sammy said. "And you can't make me anymore. You can't."
Dicey's patience was at an end. She spoke bitterly. "No I can't. And maybe I don't even want to. You've been a pill all day. I'll tell you what, you don't think I'll leave you, but I will. I'll be glad to leave you behind."
"I know." Sammy's voice was low. "So go ahead. Go on, because nobody cares about me except Momma, and Momma will come find me but she won't find you, so go ahead." (1.3.54-56)
Sammy is a pill, but he also suspects that Dicey wants to get rid of him. Hey, if Momma left him (and she really cared about him), why wouldn't Dicey, too?
Quote #3
"Dicey wouldn't ever go off and leave us. You wouldn't, would you, Dicey?"
"No," Dicey said […]
"You know what?" James asked. "We're the kind that people go off from. First our father and now Momma. I never thought of that before. Whadda you think, Dicey? Is there something wrong about us?"
"I don't know and I don't care." (1.3.113, 117-118)
Wow—James really cuts to the heart of the whole abandonment thing. Why have both their parents left them? Is it really their fault after all?