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Liz
Liz’s son. Daniel is 18 months old when Liz drops him off at childcare for the first time. He is a calm baby and doesn’t appear to be fussy or unhappy, despite his mother’s worries. He was weaned before she returned to work but still wants to breastfeed, which makes her feel intensely guilty—society tells Liz that she needs to wean Daniel so that she can live a more independent life, but both Daniel and Liz want to keep breastfeeding. Liz’s desire for physical contact with Daniel and her desire to stay home with him rather than return to work makes her feel “too needy” and contributes to most of her unhappiness throughout the story.
Daniel Quotes in Cake
The Cake quotes below are all either spoken by Daniel or refer to Daniel. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Cake
Quotes
And he’s in there, alone, where she’s left him. Abandoned him to a roomful of rampaging strangers: big, chunky, runny-nose buzz-cut boys in miniature camouflage gear, already seasoned commanders of the play equipment and the puzzles.
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Liz fishes out her wallet and finds a five-dollar note, snaps it shut before she has to look at the photo of Daniel tucked in there. His shy smile like a boobytrap. He’d have his thumb in his mouth right not. Not smiling, that’s for sure.
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Something is tearing inside her, slowly and deliberately, like a perforated seam. And even as she’s admonishing herself that giving in will only make things worse tomorrow, her hands are functioning outside her own volition again, unbuttoning her shirt.
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Get the entire Cake LitChart as a printable PDF.
Daniel Quotes in Cake
The Cake quotes below are all either spoken by Daniel or refer to Daniel. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Cake
Quotes
And he’s in there, alone, where she’s left him. Abandoned him to a roomful of rampaging strangers: big, chunky, runny-nose buzz-cut boys in miniature camouflage gear, already seasoned commanders of the play equipment and the puzzles.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Liz fishes out her wallet and finds a five-dollar note, snaps it shut before she has to look at the photo of Daniel tucked in there. His shy smile like a boobytrap. He’d have his thumb in his mouth right not. Not smiling, that’s for sure.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Something is tearing inside her, slowly and deliberately, like a perforated seam. And even as she’s admonishing herself that giving in will only make things worse tomorrow, her hands are functioning outside her own volition again, unbuttoning her shirt.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
