How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Stanza)
Quote #1
Someday I'm going to walk there too, / through New Mexico and Arizona and Nevada. / Someday I'll leave behind the wind, and the dust / and walk my way West / and make myself to home in that distance place / of green vines and promise. (31.4)
When the migrant boy stops at the Kelby home, Billie Jo doesn't see a dirty, tired kid who's been forced to leave his family to find work—she just sees someone lucky enough to get away, and wants to make a home somewhere else herself, just like him. In reality, she's blind to how good she really has it compared to him, Livie, and other folks who "get" to leave town.
Quote #2
Wish I could run home and tell Ma / and see her nod / and hear her say / "I knew you could." / It would be enough. (54.1-3)
Ma's absence changes Billie Jo's view of her, causing her to accept the things she once found hard to handle, like Ma's minimal communication style. Now she seems to wish she had been more content with home as it was.
Quote #3
Being there without Ma, / without the baby, / wouldn't have been so bad, / if I'd just remembered the cranberry sauce. / My father loved Ma's special cranberry sauce. / But she never showed me how to make it. (55.4)
Billie Jo's first Christmas without Ma shows that home is more than just a physical location—it's the little things, like family traditions and favorite recipes. Not having Ma's cranberry sauce is a painful reminder that home will be something quite different without her.