How we cite our quotes: (Page.Paragraph)
Quote #1
'Asher, it isn't nice to draw your mama like this.'
'But it was how you feel in the boat, Mama.'
(7.5-6)
From early on, Asher and his mother have a fight about how he should draw. She demands "pretty things" and he returns her demand by painting things as he feels them, which is often humorous or twisted.
Quote #2
'Asher, are you drawing pretty things? Are you drawing sweet, pretty things?'
I was not drawing pretty things. I was drawing twisted shapes, swirling forms, in blacks and reds and grays. I did not respond.
(17.15)
Asher refuses his mother's demands to paint pretty things. In so doing, he begins to develop his style, which is dark and meditative in contrast to his mother's requests for birds and flowers.
Quote #3
'Here are the birds and flowers, Mama.'
She blinked her eyes.
'I made the world pretty, Mama.'
She turned her head away and closed her eyes.
(19.8-11)
When Asher finally concedes to his mother's request to paint something pretty, she's too grief-stricken by the death of her brother to notice or care. Just goes to show that you can't win 'em all, but you can catch 'em all…if we're talking about Pokémon.