“Will probably die in March” - “In the Fall”
James’ mother states, “We don’t need a horse anymore, not even a young one, let alone one that will probably die in March.” James’ father replies, “You said the same thing last fall and he came through okay.” James’ mother’s prediction about the horse dying by March is an ironic excuse based on her husband’s reminder about the previous prediction she made regarding the horse. She evidently wants to get rid of the horse to reduce the labour she will incur while tending to it.
“She was angry that my sisters should even conceive of working” - “The Boat”
The narrator recalls, “Shortly after my sisters began to read the books, they grew restless and lost interest in darning socks and baking bread, and all of them eventually went to work as summer waitresses in the Sea Food Restaurant…She (mother) was angry that my sisters should even conceive of working in such a place." Ordinarily, the mother would be gratified by her daughters finding jobs and economic empowerment. Her anger is ascribed to ethnocentrism because she regards the restaurant owners as outsiders. She is a conservative woman who is not impressed by her daughters interacting with ‘outsiders’ at the hotel for she reckons the interactions would dilute their morals.
“Everything was clean and spotless” -“The Boat”
The narrator recounts, "My mother ran her house as her brothers ran their boats. Everything was clean and spotless and in order." This recollection about her neatness before her marriage surmises she is a meticulous and impressive homemaker. However, her meticulousness is ironic considering the nature of the narrator's father's bed: "It always looked rumpled and unmade because he lay on top of it more than he slept within any folds it might have had." The form of the bed contradicts the assertion concerning the narrator's mother's perfectionism. If she was completely neat, her husband's bed would be well-made at all times. Perhaps she is tired of making it because her husband cannot maintain its neatness once it has been made.
