How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
M.C. raised his hands in front of his chin and held them about a foot apart with palms facing each other. He knew his daddy would want to play the game, although they hadn't played it in many months. Years ago it had been the hardest kind of game for M.C. to take. Jones had tried to slap M.C.'s face hard, as he would attempt to do now. Only then M.C. never had been fast enough to chop his father's hands away. He always ended up crying.
M.C.: "Stop it. Stop it, Daddy."
His daddy: "Going to make you so tough, anyone try to worry you will break his bones." (2.61-63)
For Jones, becoming a man means being tough enough to go up against anyone who might beat M.C. up. Maybe that's where M.C. gets his practical, hard-knocks view of the world—his daddy. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
Quote #5
"Okay," Jones spoke calmly. "But you get to thinking because you can swim and because of that pole, you are some M.C. Higgins, the Great."
"I never thought it!" M.C. said.
"Just mind who was it taught you to swim and who was it gave you the pole," Jones said. (3.112-114)
This passage contains the title of the book, so you know it just has to be important. In this case, Jones is telling M.C. what we all already know: M.C.'s whole "the Great" deal is kind of arrogant. He could probably be taken down a peg or two on his road to becoming a mature adult. But still, is M.C.'s self-naming just a way for him to feel bigger and better than his father? Is he actually insecure about his identity?
Quote #6
"Wherever I go, I try to make friends," she went on, "but some kids just aren't to be trusted. I never know what kind I've run into until it's too late."
"Who you saying is a child?" M.C. said. Angry, he wanted to sound older. Instead, his words came out as though he had asked an innocent question. (8.46-47)
Leave it to Lurhetta to put M.C. in his place without even meaning to. Next to Lurhetta, M.C. is a kid. He is younger, but not just that—he knows way less about the outside world. M.C., at this point, is all wrapped up in his solo, nature-boy world, and his lack of social skills makes him seem all of his thirteen young years.