How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
There are three chairs on the covered patio: one for him, one for me, and one for Uncle Hoyt. I tell myself the chairs are empty because we're not there yet. I watch for as long as I can and when my eye starts to water, I remove my hand. (1.4)
Perhaps Pearl tells herself this so she doesn't have to deal with the alternative. After all, it's no fun thinking about how your uncle is dead because of a decision you made. Or that the guy you crushed fled to another country without you. It's clear that Pearl feels awful about what happened, but at this stage in the book, we don't know what that is yet.
Quote #2
The avocado grove looks nothing like it did that day. Nine hundred of Hoyt's trees burned in the Agua Prieta fire. Lavar Mulveen's white-shingled house, the needlepoint rug, the sofa, the three pictures I had saved of my father and me, the dish shaped like a heart that I made for him in sixth grade, the silverware, and every book we owned. Robby's Tintin figures. My mother's lock of her grandmother's hair. All burned. The wrought-iron fence melted, then hardened into a roller-coaster rail, and the prickly pear cactus that grew along the ridge liquefied and sank into ghastly skin-colored piles. (9.1)
Yikes. Pearl paints a grim picture for us here. The fire doesn't just destroy acres of land; it ruins their land and their lives. Pearl blames herself for this in a lot of ways, even though she doesn't set the fire or have anything to do with it. We can tell that her guilt is about how the fire burns her family's future in ways that she can't change.
Quote #3
For cutting school and not answering my phone and wandering loose among mountain lions and would-be rapists ("did you know there are squatters camps out there?" my mother asked, so I didn't mention the hammock), she grounded me and took away my phone. (15.9)
When Pearl ditches school after her dad's call, her mom gives her a lecture, busting out one of the oldest tricks in the book—the good old-fashioned guilt trip. She's feeling down in the dumps, too, but she doesn't go around using that as an excuse and Pearl shouldn't either.