How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
I will/ forever walk beneath an umbrella/of expectation. Mom and Dad/have a plan for me and won't talk/about alternatives. (5.12-13)
Have the narrators of Perfect ever tried talking to their parents about alternatives, or are they too busy hiding the alternatives they dream of out of fear of disapproval?
Quote #5
Sean idolized his father. He pulls into/the driveway, and even from here I can/see sadness in the forward tilt of his/shoulders. It's a memory-shadowed day. (5.25)
Sean's a classic lost boy. Even though our teen years are when we most intensely think our parents are lame, they're also the time we most need them to guide us. When you're standing on the precipice of adulthood, you need some trustworthy adults to show you how to do it.
Quote #6
Finally he says, My mom loved/roses. She grew them everywhere/in our yard, and when she died,/Dad went kind of crazy and/tore them all out. (5.32-33)
Have you ever broken up with someone and thrown out (or burned) all the stuff they gave you? This is the same action, but on a much larger scale. Sean's dad reacts to his wife's death by killing other living things, ones he can kill without consequences… except, of course, for totally traumatizing his son.