How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Most people hit kids. But if you were on welfare and on probation and the whole social-pigeonholing establishment had the right to trek regularly through your kitchen looking in the closets and under the bed… you had better not hit your kid once. (1.148)
Connie is saying that the real crime is not hitting your kids, but hitting your kids while you're poor. Would Mattapoisett let someone hit their kids? What would happen in Mattapoisett if you beat your child?
Quote #2
Her life was thin in meaningful "we's." (2.14)
Connie is isolated from her family and from any community, in part by her poverty, in part by her history and the fact that the people she loved kept dying. She's also isolated, though, because the book presents the present as isolating; compared to Mattapoisett, people in Connie's world are cut off from each other. That's part of why Mattapoisett is a utopia; people have community there.
Quote #3
The anger of the weak never goes away, Professor, it just gets a little moldy. It molds like a beautiful blue cheese in the dark, growing stranger and more interesting. (2.109)
Connie is talking about the professor at university who slept with her. She's also talking about class resentment, and how the weak are good at hating. Connie is certainly good at hating. Does the hate make her stronger? Or is it just a sign of the class differences that make her weak?