How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Stanza)
Quote #7
My father / stayed rooted, even with my tests and my temper, / even with the double sorrow of / his grief and my own, / he had kept a home / until I broke it. (100.8)
Realizing how hard Daddy has been trying to keep things afloat in Ma's absence is a huge breakthrough for Billie Jo—she's been so focused on herself and her own needs that her grief has made her selfish. Leaving home makes her able to see that she bears equal blame for the cold relationship between them.
Quote #8
Getting away, / it wasn't in any better. / Just different. / And lonely. / Lonelier than the wind. / Emptier than the sky. / More silent than the dust, piled in drifts between me / and my / father. (101.1)
How many times have you gotten something you really wanted only to find that it wasn't as great as you thought it would be? Billie Jo finally gets her wish to leave home, but realizes that it wasn't all she's cracked it up to be. In reality, even with the dust, the drought, and her grief, her home is still the only one she has.
Quote #9
When I rode the train west, / I went looking for something, / but I didn't see anything wonderful. / I didn't see anything better than what I already had. / Home. (106.5)
Sometimes we get so obsessed with thinking about how much better things could be that we forget how good they already are. Billie Jo realizes after getting away that her home is a part of her she can't escape, no matter how hard life has been.