How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
[…] and in my head I wrote the story of a girl who surfed the cold green ocean, when one day she started paddling in the wrong direction and didn't know it until she looked back and couldn't see the shore. (prologue.4)
Metaphorically speaking, if Tommy is the wrong direction that Deanna paddles in, what is the shore she loses sight of? Herself? Her self-respect? Her formerly decent relationship with her family?
Quote #2
I'd get a job, right, and work my butt off all summer, then Darren and Stacy and me would pool our money and find a place. (1.80)
This plan sounds like, well, a plan… except for the little fact that Deanna makes it before talking to Darren and Stacy about it. Until she does, it's stuck in fantasy land—which buys her a little mental freedom, but that's it.
Quote #3
She had all kinds of pictures of lighthouses that she'd torn out of magazines and printed off the Internet, and a big poster of one right over April's crib. (2.20)
Stacy hangs an image of her metaphor for escape—the lighthouse—where she'll have to see it every time she picks April up or puts her down. There's something a little sad about that, right? Do you think the picture over April's crib is also a reminder to Stacy to try to help her daughter not get stuck the way she has?