Surfacing Death Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #10

I'm crying finally, it's the first time, I watch myself doing it: I'm crouching down beside the lettuces, flowers finished now, gone to seed, my breath knots, my body tightens against it; the water fills my mouth, fish taste. But I'm not mourning, I'm accusing them, Why did you? They chose it, they had control over their death, they decided it was time to leave and they left, they set up this barrier. They didn't consider how I would feel, who would take care of me. I'm furious because they let it happen. (22.13)

Toward the end of the novel, the narrator confronts her grief—and the truth that now both of her parents are gone (her mother had died of an illness some time before that). She's tripped up emotionally by the finality and separation that death brings with it.