She is no one.
-- Narrator (The Opposite of Nothing)

Importance: In the novel's opening chapter, Blandine accomplishes her goal of escaping her body. In this passage depicting Blandine's transcendent experience, the narrator attempts to capture what Blandine feels via a series of metaphors. When Blandine leaves her body, instead of dying, she vacates her identity and thus becomes someone outside of and beyond who she has been. The moment captures Blandine's desire to liberate herself from her former self and body, in order to become a new person uncontrolled by her past traumas.

No one has it easy in the Vacca Vale system, but Blandine had it the worst, being so smart and female.
-- Narrator (Hear Me Out)

Importance: In Jack's first person portions of the novel, Jack often alludes to his, his roommates', and particularly Blandine's experiences in the Vacca Vale foster care system. The reader finds clarification for Blandine's shadowed past in Jack's chapters. This moment not only alludes...