How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"When I was your age, I'd been pounding a copper's beat for four bloody years."
"Yeah, I know, Pop, but—"
"But what?"
"It was a different world then, Pop." There was a kind of lazy patronage in Lonnie's voice, as if the world Stan had struggled through back in his own youth was simple and uncomplicated, a kindergarten sort of place. (7.35-38)
Here, we see that Lonnie is kind of dismissive of Pop's hard-working background. Part of Lonnie's coming of age experience is finding respect for his grandfather and forgiving him of his judgments against him.
Quote #5
Carol Dewey was the most beautiful girl in Year Ten—tall and slender, with a creamy complexion, features that were very nearly perfect, and long wavy corn-silk hair. There was nothing the least bit wrong with her except, now that she'd asked this question, the eyes of almost all the Year Ten girls swept up and down her searching eagerly for some flaw. (16.46)
Being a teenager is hard. So while Tracy Gilman may be the only one who's mean enough to actually criticize Carol out loud, this doesn't mean that the other girls aren't secretly trying to build themselves up by tearing someone else down, too. These years are filled with comparisons.
Quote #6
Rose right hand rose protectively against her heart. The young were so hard, she thought. They saw everything so sharply, like—like traffic lights: red meant stop and green meant go and the amber one they had no patience with. (18.26)
Like Marigold's feelings for Lonnie, Rose's observations of Clara's generation offer some important insights about the way the younger characters approach life. In this case, Rose describes youth as a lack of patience and a giving in to strictly defined rules of what's good and bad. As Rose has aged and dealt with Charlie's issues, it's obvious that she's learned there's room for middle ground.