Pg. 5 & 6: "Like indigenous peoples around the world, black South Africans adopted the religion of our colonizers. By “adopt” I mean it was forced on us. The white man was quite stern with the native. 'You need to pray to Jesus,' he said. 'Jesus will save you.'. "

Chapter II:

Pg. 21: "Race-mixing proves that races can mix— and in a lot of cases, want to mix. Because a mixed person embodies that rebuke to the logic of the system, race-mixing becomes a crime worse than treason."

Chapter III:

Pg. 37: "He was trying to live up to this image of what he thought a husband should be, dominant, controlling.[...]She ran the house, looked after the kids, did the cooking and the cleaning."

Chapter IV:

Pg. 54: "English is the one thing that can give you a leg up. English is the language of money."

Chapter V:

Pg. 70: "It was me and her, alone. There was this sense of the two of us embarking on a grand adventure. She’d say things to me like, “It’s you and me against the world.” I understood even from an early age that we weren’t just mother and son. We were a team."

Chapter VI:

Pg. 88: "One thing I loved doing at the time was using a magnifying glass to burn my name into pieces of wood. You had to aim the lens and get the focus just right and then you got the flame and then you moved it slowly and you could burn shapes and letters and patterns."

Chapter VII:

Pg. 96: "Black people name dogs by their traits. If it has stripes, you call it Tiger. If it’s vicious, you call it Danger. If it has spots, you call it Spotty. Given the finite number of traits a dog can have, pretty much everyone’s dogs have the same names; people just recycle them."

Chapter VIII:

Pg. 110: "For years I’d had so many questions. Is he thinking about me? Does he know what I’m doing? Is he proud of me? But he’d been with me the whole time. He’d always been proud of me. Circumstance had pulled us apart, but he was never not my father."

Chapter IX:

Pg. 115: "The curse that colored people carry is having no clearly defined heritage to go back to. If they trace their lineage back far enough, at a certain point it splits into white and native and a tangled web of “other.”"

Chapter X:

Pg. 129: "Valentine’s Day was approaching fast. I was twelve years old, and I’d never done Valentine’s Day before. We didn’t celebrate it in Catholic school. I understood Valentine’s Day, as a concept. The naked baby shoots you with an arrow and you fall in love. I got that part. But this was my first time being introduced to it as an activity."

Chapter XI:

Pg. 141: "I learned that even though I didn’t belong to one group, I could be a part of any group that was laughing."

Chapter XII:

Pg. 149: "Ten words that might have changed my life if I’d had the courage to say them. But I hadn’t, and now she was gone."

Chapter XIII:

Pg. 153: "Teddy and I got along like a house on fire, one of those friends where you start hanging out and from that day forward you’re never apart. [...] With Teddy, I’d finally met someone who made me feel normal."

Chapter XIV:

Pg. 172: "Once my hair was full of the relaxer, she told me, “You have to try to keep it in for as long as possible. It’s going to start burning. When it starts burning, tell me and we’ll rinse it out. [...] I waited too long. She should have told me to tell her when it started tingling, because by the time it was actually burning it had already taken off several layers of my scalp."

Chapter XV:

Pg. 188: "People in America don’t understand, but when an American chain opens in a third-world country, people go crazy. That’s true to this day. A Burger King opened for the first time in South Africa last year, and there was a queue around the block. It was an event."

Chapter XVI:

Pg. 206: "The hood was a complete sensory overload for me, but within the chaos there was order, a system, a social hierarchy based on where you lived."

Chapter XVII:

Pg. 236: "Nelson Mandela once said, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” He was so right. When you make the effort to speak someone else’s

language, even if it’s just basic phrases here and there, you are saying to them, “I understand that you have a culture and identity that exists beyond me. I see you as a human being.”

Chapter XVIII:

Pg. 282: "We sat there and she squeezed my hand and we cracked each other up the way we always did, mother and son, laughing together through the pain in an intensive-care recovery room on a bright and sunny and beautiful day."

Where I come from, Spanish colonizers imposed Christianity on Indigenous people, forcing them to adopt both Christianity and the Spanish language. As a result, the population is predominantly Christian and speaks Spanish today.

Chapter II:

The race-mixing began to appear due to the scarcity of Spanish women in America, because the ships only carried men, because of this Fernando II of Aragon, King of Spain, began to allow the mixture between natives and Spaniards.

Chapter III:

My great-grandmother was a remarkable woman, possessing one of the purest souls I have ever known. She was incredibly generous and beautiful, almost like an angel. She took on the role of caregiver and housewife, managing the household, raising the children, and upholding family traditions. My great-grandfather was the pillar of the house, providing the money and food, and always keeping our home together.

Chapter IV:

My father always told me that "English opens doors." He meant that knowing one of the most widely spoken languages in the world would improve my education and provide more job opportunities, especially since the United States is often referred to as the land of dreams. And he's right, my own life has improved because of it.

Chapter V:

I really identify with this part of Trevor's story, because I also had to move with my mother, she and I were in a new country, a new language, a new culture. Over time, she has taught me invaluable lessons that I strive to apply in my daily life.

Chapter VI:

When my father was a kid, he was quite mischievous. He told me that he and his cousins used to play with magnifying glasses, burning small leaves and branches from trees.The biggest thing they ever burned was an anthill.

Chapter VII:

In Ecuador, it is common to see stray dogs on the streets of southern Quito, and my neighborhood was no exception. On my street, two dogs were always the ones to alert and protect the people in the neighborhood. Since the dogs did not have names, they were given generic names. One of them, a large, black, non-breed dog, was called Negro, and the other, for some reason, was simply called Wiski. He was a spotted, thrilled dog. They were my friends during the pandemic.

Chapter VIII:

Even though circumstances caused my father and me to be apart, he has always been there for me. We separated three years ago, but we still communicate, and our affection for each other remains strong. He will always be my favorite person, and I am proud to be his daughter.

Chapter IX:

Trevor's experience mirrors that of many Latinos; there is no clear heritage to return to. If you trace your lineage far enough back, it often diverges into a mix of white, indigenous, and various other backgrounds.

Chapter X:

Like Trevor, I had never experienced the cultures of another country before, but once I arrived in the United States, I began to embrace their traditions and celebrations. Although I was aware of these events, I didn't know how to participate in them.

Chapter XI:

For some reason, I still feel like I don't belong here. But that doesn't prevent me from having social interactions. While laughter can create a sense of belonging, it isn't enough for an emotional bond.

Chapter XII:

I had someone in my life who was going through a tough time, but I didn't realize it back then. Eventually, many problems arose, and I made the difficult decision to end the relationship. Those last words shattered what had been one of the most beautiful relationships I've ever had.

Chapter XIII:

For me, fitting in with people is relatively easy, but I often struggle to develop the trust needed for a deeper bond, someone to whom I can share my darkest secrets or simply be myself. But, five years ago, I found my best friend. I share everything with her, and she is there for me in both good times and bad, just as I am for her. We are as close as can be, thick as thieves, despite the distance that separates us.

Chapter XIV:

I remember one time during the pandemic when I was bored and had the idea of changing my hair color. However, due to the situation, going outside wasn’t an option. My mother bought bleach and hair dye, but neither of us really knew much about hair chemicals. When she applied the bleach, my scalp began to itch, and smoke started coming out. It turned out that I had a clip in my hair, which was what caused the smoke. In the end, nothing serious happened, and I ended up with blue hair.

Chapter XV:

Ecuador is classified as a third world country, and when American restaurants or clothing brands open in the country, many people are attracted by these new offerings. Recently, a Starbucks opened and on its first day, there were a large number of customers eagerly waiting to get in.

Chapter XVI:

I remember when I lived in Ecuador, the southern part has always been more dangerous, there is always a house with loud music, maybe a fight nearby, some trash lying on the ground, some of those houses unfinished, there was always the hierarchy that if you lived in the south you were lower or middle class and if you lived in the north you were middle, upper middle or upper class.

Chapter XVII:

As soon as I arrived here in the United States, I felt out of place and was afraid to speak because I barely understood English. But the teachers always made an extra effort and tried to communicate with me with phrases they knew or by using the translator, making me feel like I was part of them and in the end I felt accepted once I learned the language. I am very grateful to my teachers for that.

Chapter XVIII:

Just like the connection in Chapter V; it's my mother and I against the world. The last part of the book reminded me of the time my mother had surgery for gallbladder problems. This experience made us stronger and there was also a miracle, the miracle of reuniting the family. My grandparents, who had stopped talking to each other after their divorce, became friends again after my mother's surgery.

Pg 7: Hypophora- "Songs about some guy grinding on a girl all night long? No, no, no. That was forbidden."

Chapter II:

Pg 27: Rule of Three- "It's the Central Park of Johannesburg- beautiful gardens, a zoo, a giant chessboard with human-sized pieces that people would play."

Chapter III:

Pg 36: Colloquialism "'Let's go, Trevah! Come on! Put your fists up! Hit me! I'll show you I'm still a man! Let's go!'"

Chapter IV:

Pg 52: Anaphora "'Trevor, when you hit him he turns blue and green and yellow and red.'"

Chapter V:

Pg 70: Allusion "Anytime the radio wasn't getting reception, my mom would pop in a cassette of Jimmy Swaggart sermons."

Chapter VI:

Pg 77: Simile "I ate like a pig."

Pg 77: Epizeuxis "I consumed boxes of books and wanted more, more, more."

Chapter VII:

Pg 100: Aphorism " That experience shaped what I've felt about relationships for the rest of my life: You do not own the thing that you love."

Chapter VIII:

Pg 110: Rhetorical Question "Is he thinking about me? Does he know what I'm doing? Is he proud of me?"

Chapter XVIII:

Pg. 248: Polysyndeton: "Abie was charming and hilarious and had an easy, gracious smile."

Pg. 251: Parenthesis: "At home my mom was forever making me do chores—wash the dishes, sweep the house—but when she tried to do that in Tzaneen, the women wouldn’t allow it."

Pg. 270: Allusion and hyperbole: "She called him Isaac because in the Bible Sarah gets pregnant when she's like a hundred years old and she's not supposed to be having children and that's what she names her son."

Pg. 271: Anaphora: "I didn’t understand what she was going through. I didn’t understand domestic violence. I didn’t understand how adult relationships worked."

Pg. 272: Rhetorical Question: "Where does a woman go in a society where that is the norm? When the police won't help her? When her own family won't help her?"