How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
Nailer laughed. "My dad doesn't give anyone a chance for second thoughts. He cuts you first. He talks about family sticking together, but what he really means is that I give him money… Lucky Girl's more of a family than he is." (19.107)
When the captain asks why Nailer's setting up a conflict with his dad, Nailer tells him what family really means: Loyalty, trust, and having one another's back. And he hasn't gotten that with his father since his mother died, if ever.
Quote #11
The old-world wrecks still lay black on the sand like mangled bodies, still leaking oil and chemicals, still swarming with workers. But he wasn't one of them. And not Pima. And not Sadna, either. He wasn't able to save everybody, but he could at least save family. (25.38)
At the end of the novel, when Nailer watches the ship breakers work, we realize that he's come to some resolutions about what family means to him: Family is made, not born into. This is not necessarily true for Nita, but that has more to do with class differences. Definitions of family are personal for the characters in the book.