How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
David says "Bloody fascist pig Yanks," as though he's commenting on the weather. (1.11)
David is fond of railing against the "Yanks"—Americans, that is—but his precise political commitments and his objections to Americans never really become clear. Given that David emerges as an egomaniacal bully, it seems like his xenophobia is more about hearing the sound of his own voice than anything else.
Quote #2
Now we're on my home ground, foreign territory. My throat constricts, as it learned to do when I discovered people could say words that would go into my ears meaning nothing. (1.20)
The narrator feels pretty awkward and foreign going back to the region where as grew up, as she's forced to try to communicate with some of the French-speaking residents. Apparently she's always felt fairly awkward about it.
Quote #3
Madame has appeared in the kitchen doorway and Paul speaks with her in the nasal slanted French I can't interpret because I learned all but a few early words of mine in school. Folk songs and Christmas carols and, from the later grades, memorized passages of Racine and Baudelaire are no help to me here. (2.19)
The narrator learned French in school, so her use of the language is very different from that of the Francophone individuals she encounters. As a result, she feels super-self-conscious about communicating in French with people like Madame, an old family friend who is Francophone.