One important passage in the text occurs on page 30 when Dillon first tells Rachel that he is in love with her, and tries to force himself onto her. Although Rachel shows an attraction to Dillon, she responds to his advances with lines such as “It’s trashy! Its sinful and ugly!”, and enlightening Dillon about the perception of dating cousins. Dillon does not seem to care about what other people think about him, and is disgusted that Rachel said he is “as bad as hillbilly trash from the head of the holler” (30) when she is directly related to him. This theme is important because it addresses the different ways in which people from the region might view stereotypes from outsiders: on the one hand, some people might not care what others think, whereas others are more conscious about how they are perceived in the eyes of others.
Another important passage in the text occurs at the end of book 1 when Jackie, Dillon and Rachel go to the hospital to have blood tests done. This passage is important because it highlights Dillon’s internal struggle throughout the novel concerning Jackie’s biological father, as well as Jackie’s childhood innocence. It is interesting to see how both of these themes occur simultaneously in an instant, when Dillon’s knuckles turn white in frustration and Jackie thinks he might have leukemia based on her recent reading. Jackie’s innocence speaks to the theme that people are not born prejudiced or with predetermined notions, and that they develop based on the various interactions in their lives. I believe this is why Rachel tries very hard to teach “proper” values to Jackie, despite not following all of them herself in the past.