How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
[…] when Momma dropped the phone with a rattling clatter and a single sob—perfectly devastated. She sank to the floor, looking for all the world as if she were staring through the checkered brown and blue linoleum to behold the burning hot-lava core at the very center of the Earth. (1.18)
Question: Momma's savvy is being perfect at everything. Do you think that extends to her grief and how she navigates suffering?
Quote #2
"So, where are you all from?" he asked with the sorry voice of a man who'd just lost the last of his pluck and knew it. (10.24)
Poor Lester has never had it easy. Perhaps his plan is to simply make it through this trip and then quit his horrible job that he's no good at. We'll never know, fortunately, because Lill helps end his suffering.
Quote #3
I hadn't cried once since Poppa's accident, but now that I'd started, there on that big pink bus, I couldn't stop. Everything felt broken and hopeless. What if this had all been for nothing? (13.2)
Here is the rising action in the subplot of the book—the subplot being Mibs coming to terms with her savvy. And yet, it is a moment of necessary suffering in order for her to realize that she's been lying to herself up until this point.