How we cite our quotes: (Section.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Far from home, living in a white woman's basement, that letter made me feel buried, too. I opened the envelope and read the words. I was sitting at my linoleum table with my textbook spread out to the section "Patient Abuse." There were two ways you could think of that title. One was obvious to a nursing student, and the other was obvious to a Kashpaw. Between my mother and myself the abuse was slow and tedious, requiring long periods of dormancy, living in the blood like hepatitis. When it broke out it was almost a relief. (1.2.2)
These are Albertine's thoughts about her relationship with her mother, Zelda. As you can see, these two ladies have issues. Zelda resents Albertine for running away from home and going to nursing school, so she neglects to tell Albertine that June is dead until a week later, since she claims she believed Albertine would be too busy to come home. Talk about classic passive aggressiveness.
Quote #2
I was so mad at my mother, Zelda, that I didn't write or call for almost two months. She should have gone up the nun's hill to the convent, like she wanted, instead of having me. But she had married Swede Johnson from off-reservation, and I'd arrived premature. He'd had the grace, at least, to go AWOL from army boot camp and never let his face be seen again. (1.2.15)
Apparently Albertine firmly believes that her mother should have just become a nun rather than having her, and that she is better off because her father had disappeared entirely. We're not exactly getting a lot of warmth from this family so far, are we?
Quote #3
I'd been the one who'd really blocked my mother's plans for being pure. I'd forced her to work for money, keeping books, instead of pursuing tasks that would bring divine glory on her head. I'd caused her to live in a trailer near Grandma so that there would be someone to care for me. Later on, I'd provided her with years of grinding grief. I had gone through a long phase of wickedness and run away. Yet now that I was on the straight and narrow, things were even worse between us. (1.2.15)
Now Albertine tells us a bit more about why her mother feels so much resentment for her. It seems that in addition to just taking up money, time, and energy that Zelda could have put toward "divine glory," Albertine ran away. Considering that Zelda clearly felt she gave up a lot, she must have resented that a good bit.