How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Stanza)
Quote #1
By the summer I turned nine Daddy had / given up about having a boy. / He tried making me do. / I look just like him, / I can handle myself most everywhere he puts me, / even on the tractor, / though I don't like that much. (1.4)
There's no denying the fact that Billie Jo's a girl, but Daddy does the best he can to make his daughter as close to the son he never had as possible. He teaches her to do farm work with him and tries to focus on the fact that she has his genes regardless of her gender. He seems to hope this will transform his feelings toward her and make him as happy with a daughter as he would have been with a son.
Quote #2
In the parlor, Ma is something different. / She isn't much to look at, so long and skinny, / her teeth poor, / her dark hair always needing a wash, but / from the time I was four, / I remember being dazzled by her / whenever she played the piano. (13.1)
Ma might seem like an ordinary housewife, but for Billie Jo, music transforms her into something "dazzling" and is what makes her unique and beautiful to her.
Quote #3
I can't look at her. / I can't recognize her. / She smells like scorched meat. / Her body groaning there, / it looks nothing like my ma. / It doesn't even have a face. (35.1)
The way the fire destroys Ma's dazzling appearance mirrors the transformation of the family's life in general. What was once simple but beautiful, now is unrecognizable and horrifying.