How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
And when it doesn't work, she thinks, I get stuck playing the same bad moment. But why speak of that. (1.1.41)
Dedé, because of her famous sisters, is basically trapped in the past. She can't escape the years and moments leading up to Patria, Minerva, and Mate's deaths, and can't change the fact that she didn't save them or join them. It's almost like a way of punishing herself, getting stuck in the bad moments.
Quote #5
As Dedé is helping her father step safely up the stairs of the galería, she realizes that hers is the only future he really told. María Teresa's was a tease, and Papá never got to Minerva's or Patria's on account of Mamá's disapproval. A chill goes through her, for she feels it in her bones, the future is now beginning. By the time it is over, it will be the past, and she doesn't want to be the only one left to tell their story. (1.1.68)
This moment seems very simple—of course someday the future will be the past. But the fact that Dedé is able to stop and recognize that she is at a turning point, just as it's happening, is actually really unusual and profound. Her father's prediction, that she would outlive them all, comes true and she recognizes immediately the loneliness inherent in her fate.
Quote #6
"Stop, please," I begged her. "I think I'm going to throw up."
"I can't," she said.
Sinita's story spilled out like blood from a cut. (1.2.68-70)
Even though it is hard for Minerva to listen to Sinita's story, her friend is unable to stop. The pain of the story is compared to a bleeding cut in a simile—her past is something that just flows out of her, a wound that won't heal.