How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
I laughed a laugh that I could not believe came out of me; it was a gurgly laugh, a laugh shot full of pleasure and insincerity; it was the laugh of a woman on whom not long ago I would have heaped scorn (4.18).
Aha. So it looks like Lucy can turn on some feminine charm when she wants to, much to her shock. Does this moment make Lucy any less of a rebel against gender norms?
Quote #8
[. . .] whenever I saw [my mother's] eyes fill up with tears at the thought of how proud she would be at some deed her sons had accomplished, I felt a sword go through my heart, for there was no accompanying scenario in which she saw me, her only identical offspring, in a remotely similar situation (4.51).
Ouch. Lucy's mother has wildly different aspirations for her sons than she ever had for Lucy. Why is it so profoundly hurtful to Lucy that her mother, in particular, sees her as having less potential than her brothers?
Quote #9
[Mariah] wanted to rescue me. She spoke of women in society, women in history, women in culture, so I couldn't tell her that my mother was my mother and that society and history and culture and other women in general were something else altogether (4.53).
Blah, blah, blah. Do you think Lucy is too quick to dismiss Mariah's attempt to help her recognize a relationship between her own experience and the age-old, global problem of misogyny and discrimination against women?