Significant "Quotes"
Augusten talks about a girl at school named Heather: "This girl was everything in life that I wasn't. She was smart, articulate, outgoing, and popular. She came from the best of families and never wore the same clothes two days in a row. ...She made me sick" (120). Augusten is the oppostie of Heather, and he hates that because he wants to be normal. Though he is the farthest thing from normal, living in an unstable home and with crazy people, he still cannot avoid wanting to be like her. She is something he always wished his mother, and now himself, could be--a star, famous, someone who matters. Heather's father is Bill Cosby, and she became famous without even having to try. Augusten tries and he still is not well-liked or normal. This quote is significant because Augusten feels like he wants to be smart and popular, and gets sick to his stomach when he thinks of her and how he cannot be like her. According to him, she is a somebody, and he is a nobody.
Augusten talks about Neil Bookman, his boyfriend, and himself: "He told me he was falling in love with me. That I was godlike and that he hadn't known that at first. He said I was becoming everything to him, his reason. I'd never mattered to anyone so much before" (133). Augusten feels loved and wanted. This are feelings that he never has felt like he deserves or could experience. His mother and father did not want him and gave him away; and now he is living with people who do not have rules and everyone is allowed to do as they please, as if they were all adults. They have all the freedom they please. No one acts like parents or provides instruction. This parenting does not give the children the feeling that they matter and are worth giving attention to, therefore Augusten feels like he is worthless. Before Neil Bookman, Augusten felt like he did not matter, and it did not matter if he lived or died; no one cared. But now, someone shows him that he does matter and cares for him, this is a new feeling for him.
Natalie says to Augusten: "Don't you ever just feel like we're chasing something? Something bigger. I don't know, it's like something that only you and I can see. Like we're running, running, running?" (290) Natalie and Augusten are always doing something, but it never leads them anywhere. There is a bigger plan for their lives, but they have not found it yet. They are always "running with scissors" and being mischievous and that plan has not come into view until now. They need to get on that path and make something of themselves, the thing that they are chasing, that only they can see. They are running, and chasing their dreams, and they end up achieving them. Augusten becomes a famous writer and Natalie becomes a psychologist and a singer. This is significant because they are finally realizing that they want to make something of themselves, and that they are chasing something bigger. This realization sets them on the- path to a more productive future.
Augusten speaks to himself: "Of course I can make it in New York City. There's no way New York could be crazier than my life had been at the Finches' house in Northampton, Massachusetts. And I survived that. Unwittingly, I had earned a Ph.D. in survival" (301). Through all the craziness and instability Augusten experiences living with the Finches, he works through anything that comes his way. Whether it be the crazy city of New York or his psychotic mother, he does it; he survives. Survival becomes a natural instinct for him, but it did not come to him without experience and effort. Augusten learns to live and teach himself how to survive on his own, because there are no adults to guide him; therefore, becoming very independent. Though forced to decide right from wrong by himself, he guides himself on the right path, and becomes a successful writer, writing about his life and how he "survived".
Augusten talks about Neil Bookman, his boyfriend, and himself: "He told me he was falling in love with me. That I was godlike and that he hadn't known that at first. He said I was becoming everything to him, his reason. I'd never mattered to anyone so much before" (133). Augusten feels loved and wanted. This are feelings that he never has felt like he deserves or could experience. His mother and father did not want him and gave him away; and now he is living with people who do not have rules and everyone is allowed to do as they please, as if they were all adults. They have all the freedom they please. No one acts like parents or provides instruction. This parenting does not give the children the feeling that they matter and are worth giving attention to, therefore Augusten feels like he is worthless. Before Neil Bookman, Augusten felt like he did not matter, and it did not matter if he lived or died; no one cared. But now, someone shows him that he does matter and cares for him, this is a new feeling for him.
Natalie says to Augusten: "Don't you ever just feel like we're chasing something? Something bigger. I don't know, it's like something that only you and I can see. Like we're running, running, running?" (290) Natalie and Augusten are always doing something, but it never leads them anywhere. There is a bigger plan for their lives, but they have not found it yet. They are always "running with scissors" and being mischievous and that plan has not come into view until now. They need to get on that path and make something of themselves, the thing that they are chasing, that only they can see. They are running, and chasing their dreams, and they end up achieving them. Augusten becomes a famous writer and Natalie becomes a psychologist and a singer. This is significant because they are finally realizing that they want to make something of themselves, and that they are chasing something bigger. This realization sets them on the- path to a more productive future.
Augusten speaks to himself: "Of course I can make it in New York City. There's no way New York could be crazier than my life had been at the Finches' house in Northampton, Massachusetts. And I survived that. Unwittingly, I had earned a Ph.D. in survival" (301). Through all the craziness and instability Augusten experiences living with the Finches, he works through anything that comes his way. Whether it be the crazy city of New York or his psychotic mother, he does it; he survives. Survival becomes a natural instinct for him, but it did not come to him without experience and effort. Augusten learns to live and teach himself how to survive on his own, because there are no adults to guide him; therefore, becoming very independent. Though forced to decide right from wrong by himself, he guides himself on the right path, and becomes a successful writer, writing about his life and how he "survived".