Monument 14

“We’d had a pretty fun time together, actually, but now we didn’t even say hi to each other. I don’t know why. High school seemed to do that to people.”

Here, Dean comments on the fact that he is no longer friends with Josie and Trish. This sentiment points to the theme of social hierarchies—Dean has a low status, so those of a higher status no longer talk to him. 

“Somehow, just writing something down makes anything that happens seem okay.”

Journaling during the crisis makes Dean feel better. Writing is a way for Dean to connect to himself and self-actualize, which he continues to do throughout the novel.

“I don’t know what she read on my face. Probably that I was totally hers. That I loved her with everything worthy inside me.”

Astrid holds sway over Dean; his crush on her is one of his character’s primary drives in the novel. Since they belong to different social strata, however, the two have never dated.