Debbie wore her body like she owned it; for me, it was the other way around.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: The narrator opens her account with detailed descriptions of her sister Debbie. A line such this one, therefore, establishes the narrator's complicated relationship with her older sister. In comparison to the narrator, Debbie is confident, assured, and spirited. She is therefore everything that the narrator is not, but wants to be. The line introduces the author's explorations of and the narrator's search for identity.

I thought I could learn to be like him through osmosis.
-- Narrator (chapter 2)

Importance: When the narrator tells Debbie that she is moving in with her new boyfriend Ronnie, Debbie recommends against doing so. In an attempt to establish herself outside the context of her sister, the narrator ignores Debbie's advice. She is terrified of becoming like her sister, and thus thinks that being with Ronnie will help her become more like him...