My son touches my ribbon, but never in a way that makes me afraid. He thinks of it as a part of me, and he treats it no differently than he would an ear or finger.
This is super cool. She does not like anyone else touching her green ribbon, but she feels a connection with her son, and realizes that he thinks the ribbon is just a part of her.
– May I touch it? – No. – I want to touch it, he says. – No.
This theme recurs throughout the story. Of having space, and being aware of others and their feelings.
– You shouldn’t touch it, I say. You can’t touch it.
Why cannot this ribbon be touched? what is the significance behind this ribbon?
You notice that your room is a mess and that it smells like ass and that you’ve become so accustomed to its smell and its mess that from the space inside your head, behind your eyes, the space in which your first-person P.O.V. is rooted, you—
Here, we see the teen realizes he is a mess, but does not really do much about it. He seems lazy almost, and maybe this is why his father is not nice to him.
Sweat is running down your legs in rivulets, in streams, your heart is thumping, and you are wondering if sniffing the kush as you did earlier has got you high.
This game he is playing seems to be the most important thing in his life at the moment
When you get to your room, you lock the door and turn up MF Doom on your portable speaker to ward off mothers, fathers, grandmothers, sisters, and brothers who want to harp at you about prayer, the Quran, Pashto, Farsi, a new job, new classes, exercise, basketball, jogging, talking, guests, chores, homework help, bathroom help, family time, time, because usually “Madvillainy” does the trick.
The kid wants nothing to do with his family, just wants to play video games. This reminds me of a lot of similar modern families when kids tend to get older. Adolescents can have troubles with their parents because they want to be more independent.
Your father is a dark, sturdy man, and so unlike you that, as a child, you were sure that one day Hagrid would come to your door and inform you of your status as a Mudblood, and then your true life—the life without the weight of your father’s history, pain, guilt, hopelessness, helplessness, judgment, and shame—would begin.
The dad is obviously not a good parent. The kid isn't described to be nervous or scared, but from the language of the text, I got that vibe from the kid.
you’ve been using your Taco Bell paychecks to help your pops, who’s been out of work since you were ten, and who makes you feel unbearably guilty about spending money on useless hobbies
The father here does not seem very supportive. the main character is working to help his father who has been out of the work force for a decade, yet he still makes his son feel guilty for buying things for his hobbies with his own money.
for instance, the fact that she has severely injured one of her own customers, and not even to protect her children from a vicious gangster. But she can’t stop laughing. She can’t stop thinking of the absurdity of this situation, how if she were in the woman’s shoes she also would have left.
This was interesting. I feel like sometimes when I witness something or am a part of something special or just extremely weird, sometimes the only thing you can do is just laugh at the situation. I do not think Sothy was laughing because of how funny she thought the situation was, but rather more of the body's physical response to a wild event.
Even with the recession wiping out almost every downtown business, and driving away their nighttime customers, save for the odd worn-out worker from the nearby hospital, consider these summer nights, endless under the fluorescent lights, the family’s last pillars of support. Imagine Chuck’s Donuts a mausoleum to their glorious past.
This shows the contrast of the recession in their town and bad buisness, and the "support" they feel from fluorescent lights in their cafe. This shows the strong connection the family feels with their buisness, even if they are not doing too well.
An hour passes. Kayley whispers to Tevy, “It looks like he’s just staring at his own face,” to which Tevy says, “I’m trying to study.”The man finally leaves. His apple fritter remains untouched on the table.
This quote also continues to highlight the fact that something is not normal with this man in the cafe at 3:00am. He ended up leaving the cafe after sitting still for an hour, before he leaves without even taking one bite of the apple fritter that he bought.
The man ignores them both, sits down at a booth, and proceeds to stare out the window, at the busted potential of this small city’s downtown
I thought this was interesting. Why is this mysterious man ignoring the employees behind the counter.