I am not a memoirist.
-- Narrator (Pages 1 - 32)

Importance: Although the narrator identifies as a writer, she is insistent that she does not write memoir. Appearing at the forefront of the narrative, this line establishes the narrator's reluctance to admit that she is writing about her own life. As the narrative unfolds, this internal struggle becomes a key source of tension. The narrator's fear of owning her own story is indeed related to her fear of betraying her mother and exposing herself.

She loved to tell stories about herself.
-- Narrator (1 - 32)

Importance: Amidst the narrator's recollection of the day she cleaned her parents' kitchen, she reflects on the sort of stories her mother liked to tell. Throughout the chapters following this moment, iterations of this line begin to surface throughout the narrative. The narrator is therefore trying to justify writing her mother's story. She wants to believe that because her mother liked stories about herself, she would...