How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"Where are you planning to sleep, the Arctic Circle?" she asked. I thought, There or maybe the Peruvian Andes, since that's where Dad once camped. [...] I started to keep a notebook called How to Survive in the Wild. (2.21-22)
Juxtaposing these thoughts—along with Alma's interest in her father's tent—places her interest in the wilderness not solely as a way to escape her mother's smothering tendencies, but to connect with her father. Seen in this light, Alma's wilderness isn't wilderness at all, but yet another hypothetical home.
Quote #5
The fact that she stayed home all day in her pajamas translating books by mostly dead people didn't seem to help matters much. (2.28)
Charlotte Singer's disinterest in meeting new people is epitomized by the fact that she never even leaves the familiarity of her home.
Quote #6
It must have taken another few weeks for my mother's reply to arrive in Venice, and by then Jacob Marcus had most likely gone, leaving instructions for his mail to be forwarded. In the beginning, I pictured him as very tall and thin with a chronic cough, speaking the few words of Italian he knew with a terrible accent, one of those sad people who are never at home anywhere. (2.57)
Does Alma imagine Jacob "never at home anywhere" as a reaction to her mother never leaving the house? Or does this image suggest something more fundamental about his character?