book of fred quote shelby steingraeber

"...I found myself looking back on the whole thing in a different way. I wasn't sure that if I were someone's mama, I would let them go into a big concrete place with a lot of guns, or that I would let them go alone to some old man with a braided ponytail, no matter who he said he was. It wasn't like i was mad at mama- I understood why she did those things. But it seemed clear to me that I was going to have to start taking care of myself in a new way, that I was going to have to stop relying on people for things as if I was still a child." ( Bardi 289)

I feel this quote is significant in the novel because it displays an " awakening" moment for Mary Fred. It is in this moment that she realizes that she must not let others influence her so greatly, and become a more independant individual.