He thought he was Huitzilopochtli, a god, half-man half-hummingbird. My parents At his feet, wrecked honeysuckles, he lowered his swordlike mouth, gorged on them, draining color until their eyebrows whitened.
-- Speaker (When My Brother Was a Aztec)

Importance: This is the first time that the concept of human sacrifice, which is a potent and evolving theme throughout the work, is introduced. Here, it is a sign of cruelty on behalf of the brother, to take so much from his parents. Later on in the collection, the question of who sacrifices whom, and to what, is made more complicated as the symbols used to represent sacrifice change.

She said, You mean the white kids. You want to be a white kid? Well too bad 'cause you're my kid.
-- Mother (Why I Hate Raisins)

Importance: "Why I Hate Raisins" begins by showing that this memory is what love means to the speaker. Her mother is hungry, but has given all of the only snack that there...