How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
The sound of the gun going off was like a huge mouth swallowing a noise, and Pedi was eaten by that mouth. Thoughts ran together inside my head and blurred, like currents of fast water flowing together. Loud shrieks inside my lungs were bursting to get out, but couldn't. Pedi was dead, I knew it. The way she fell back on the floor, she could only be dead. I was afraid to go up to her, thinking I'd see a gory gash where the bullet entered her head and I'd lose my mind.
My muscles felt weak and droopy. I thought I was going to pass out, but then I heard her crying, and when I speeded over to her, her mouth was fluttering. Tears sprouted from her eyes and leaked down past her ears, but this only made me laugh; my heart felt like it was being squeezed between two hands; joy and grief pressing and unpressing. (6.56-57)
If we almost accidentally shot our little sisters, we'd be freaked out just like Manny is. Before he realizes that Pedi is okay, he has tons of emotions surging, and fear is definitely a big one. But once he figures out that Pedi is okay, he starts to change his tune. What was your reaction to Manny's laughter? How do you think Manny's fear relates to "joy" and "grief" here?
Quote #5
Thoughts came like damp, echoing coughs, and the air felt empty. I sort of began to feel like no gravity was holding me, and I was spiraling down a long, black tunnel. Looking up, I remembered the bullet, which I figured got buried inside the cooler shaft. I prayed no one would ever see it. The thought of how close I'd come to killing Pedi gave my lungs a peculiar sponginess, as if apart from my body they'd been sobbing for hours. (6.103)
Manny's obviously been super scared that he almost killed his little sister, and that makes his body feel all sorts of weird things, like there is "no gravity" or his lungs have "a peculiar sponginess." Check out how these descriptions are super physical, letting us know again that fear is something Manny experiences all over his body. Plus, they help us to learn just how upsetting the idea of almost killing Pedi is, as if our main man can't control the way he feels.
Quote #6
Being an official trainer, I got a reputation among a couple of girls, Rachel and Mary, who hung over by the baseball diamond. Their attitudes toward me couldn't have changed more completely. They said hi to me now, whereas before I would've died if just one of them had thrown me her eyes. (7.66)
There are plenty of things to be afraid of in this book and some of the stuff is pretty huge (ahem, Dad trying to shoot Mom). But then there's the smaller stuff, like talking to girls; for Manny, sometimes these littler fears don't feel so little. Now that he's part of a sports team, though, he has some confidence in his corner. Do you think it's just being on the team that causes this change in Manny? How else does he go from having butterflies in his stomach to being super brave?