You realize now...that youth isn't wasted on the young. Literature is.
-- Alice's Professor (chapter 1 paragraph 32)

Importance: This quote comments on how young people do not appreciate literature until they are old enough to experience the events it chronicles. Mimi's book did not make sense to Alice until she read it after her mother's unexpected death. She was too young at the time to appreciate the meaning behind it.Taken further, the same is true of life. It is hard to imagine what you have not experienced. When it does happen to you, dealing with it is much harder than you thought it would be. It was hard for Alice to imagine "The Pitcher" as anything but a water jug when she was young. When she actually experienced an event (her mother's unexpected death) that the novel touches, she cannot stop crying.

Hair like mine is a burden. I'm always worried my face will...
-- Alice (chapter 2 paragraph 42)