The point was to ask for strength. Improvement wasn't coming any other way
-- Darisse (chapter 3)

Importance: This is an indication of Darisse's inner strength and of her wisdom and practicality. Life is hard as a single mother struggling to make ends meet with an exploitive husband taking advantage of her and boyfriends like Claude who just disappear on her. She asks God for more air when she prays, air from a larger space because she feels it will bring her strength. Darisse knows that the only way to lead a better life is to find resources from within, not without. The women in the novel look to others for "improvement," especially men, but by the end of their narrative arcs they come realize it is a lifelong process of making choices, of choosing to become a certain way: a power that comes from within oneself.

Could it save her sixty-one-year-old mother from heart...
-- Monika (chapter 7)