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Fatima Moss
Benni is a woman whom Fatima encounters every day on her walk home from school. Though seeing Benni is a daily occurrence, Benni changes every day: she’s always wearing a different outfit, she’s always singing a different song, and she’s always performing different dance moves and playing imaginary instruments. Fatima implies that Benni isn’t a person her parents would approve of her speaking to and might even consider dangerous, since Fatima specifically keeps Benni a secret from her parents so they won’t forbid her from walking home from school. But over time, Benni and Fatima form a sort of friendship. She normally accompanies Fatima for several blocks, but on the day that “How to Look Both (Both) Ways” takes place, Benni accompanies Fatima further than usual—and insists on hearing how Fatima plans to change the world.
Benni Austin Quotes in Look Both Ways
The Look Both Ways quotes below are all either spoken by Benni Austin or refer to Benni Austin. 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:
).
4. How to Look (Both) Both Ways
Quotes
[…] but she left out the part about the woman in the pink pants because she knew if she told her mother, […] that would be the end of walking. That would be the end of a babysitterless life. Back to cheese-toast snack time and other coughy kids whining about what they want to watch on TV. And she didn’t want that because even though the first walk was rough, anything was worth trying again if it meant she could come home and be alone in her house, where she could microwave nuggets and pretend to be a flight attendant like her father.
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50. I look both ways.
Difference: Then I think about Ms. Broome’s assignment. What could I be? What do I wish I could become to change the world? I think about telling Benni I might want to be wet cement to fill the cracks in the sidewalk. Not to hide. But to stop someone else from tripping. Or maybe I’d be an umbrella to keep rain from someone’s head. Keep someone dry in a storm. But I don’t say none of that to Benni, because I don’t think either of those things would change the world. So I tell her I don’t know.
I don’t know. I don’t know how to change the world.
Then I ask her if she’d maybe let me borrow one of her instruments to play.
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Get the entire Look Both Ways LitChart as a printable PDF.
Benni Austin Quotes in Look Both Ways
The Look Both Ways quotes below are all either spoken by Benni Austin or refer to Benni Austin. 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:
).
4. How to Look (Both) Both Ways
Quotes
[…] but she left out the part about the woman in the pink pants because she knew if she told her mother, […] that would be the end of walking. That would be the end of a babysitterless life. Back to cheese-toast snack time and other coughy kids whining about what they want to watch on TV. And she didn’t want that because even though the first walk was rough, anything was worth trying again if it meant she could come home and be alone in her house, where she could microwave nuggets and pretend to be a flight attendant like her father.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
50. I look both ways.
Difference: Then I think about Ms. Broome’s assignment. What could I be? What do I wish I could become to change the world? I think about telling Benni I might want to be wet cement to fill the cracks in the sidewalk. Not to hide. But to stop someone else from tripping. Or maybe I’d be an umbrella to keep rain from someone’s head. Keep someone dry in a storm. But I don’t say none of that to Benni, because I don’t think either of those things would change the world. So I tell her I don’t know.
I don’t know. I don’t know how to change the world.
Then I ask her if she’d maybe let me borrow one of her instruments to play.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
