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Fire Quotes With Page Numbers

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1. “…and when she looked up, I was overcome with panic that she’d see me and call out my name…and my secret would be out” (3).
Jeannette’s thoughts are revealed in this quote about being associated with her mother, who is homeless. While in a taxi on the way to an upscale party, she spots her mother digging through garbage on the streets of New York City. Her “secret” that she fears colleagues will find out about foreshadows the fact that she was once homeless and poverty-stricken, just like her parents are now, and had to work her way up from the bottom.
Jeannette is very insecure about her past life of poverty, and although she has now dug herself out of the rut of destitution, her parents’ continued homelessness is always a reminder of …show more content…

“I wondered if the fire had been out to get me. I wondered if all fire was related, like Dad said all humans were related…” (34).
Jeannette reflects on how fire has continually resurfaced in many events of her life so far. During this reflection, she is drinking a Shirley Temple inside a bar across the street from the hotel they were staying in, which had caught fire that night. Jeannette eventually concludes that all the times in her life involving fire are linked and affect one another, and that fire could suddenly appear anywhere, at any time.
Jeannette’s view on fire acts as a symbol for her family and life. Just like fire, Jeannette’s life is unpredictable, as well as the actions of her family. Fire can do good things or can be very harmful; its’ actions can be sudden, dangerous, or painful, and the path it decides to take can change Jeannette’s life in the blink of an eye. The behavior of the Walls family assimilates with that of fire, in the way of turmoil that both can bring, either to the Walls family itself or others around …show more content…

This fond memory of her childhood was a time when the Walls family was not starving or homeless, and Jeannette’s father had a true job that was providing food and shelter for their family. This period was one of the few times in Jeannette’s life during which the Walls family was at peace with one another. Education was the main way the family bonded, so the constant presence of literature and reading in this part of her life demonstrates that this could have been a time where the relationship between parents and children in the Walls family was at its strongest and

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