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Jillian is Lizet’s freshman roommate at Rawlings College in New York. Jillian is a beautiful, privileged girl from “the good part” of New Jersey, who has a lot of high-minded—but deeply offensive—ideas about race and identity. She introduces Lizet to her friends as her “Cuban” roommate, highlighting and accessorizing Lizet’s otherness, but then calls Lizet “racist” when Lizet says that Jillian is not qualified to make assessments about the Ariel Hernandez affair. Jillian is not overtly cruel to Lizet, but rather pelts her with micro-aggressions that confuse and destabilize her sense of self. Crucet uses Jillian to demonstrate how difficult it is for immigrants and people of color to convince other, more privileged people—namely, white people—that their own stories and opinions are valuable, and to show how insidious the effects of such treatment are.
Jillian Quotes in Make Your Home Among Strangers
The Make Your Home Among Strangers quotes below are all either spoken by Jillian or refer to Jillian. 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:
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Chapter 10
Quotes
—You're too connected to the whole thing.
I tossed the book on the desk behind me and said—too loud and leaning too far forward—What the fuck does that mean, connected? I'm not fucking related to the kid.
—Don’t get ghetto, Liz, she said. I'm just saying that, no offense, but as a Cuban person, you can't really expect people to believe that you'll be completely rational about this.
She held the water bottle loosely now, between only a couple fingers. I tried to match her ease by leaning back in my chair.
—I was born in this country, I said, not knowing what point I was trying to make.
I righted my chair and tried again. I said, Look, I would argue that I - I can speak more intelligently about this than you because I know more about it than you ever could.
—Wow, she said, her water bottle heading back to her mouth. Let's just leave that there before you get any more racist.
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Jillian Quotes in Make Your Home Among Strangers
The Make Your Home Among Strangers quotes below are all either spoken by Jillian or refer to Jillian. 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:
).
Chapter 10
Quotes
—You're too connected to the whole thing.
I tossed the book on the desk behind me and said—too loud and leaning too far forward—What the fuck does that mean, connected? I'm not fucking related to the kid.
—Don’t get ghetto, Liz, she said. I'm just saying that, no offense, but as a Cuban person, you can't really expect people to believe that you'll be completely rational about this.
She held the water bottle loosely now, between only a couple fingers. I tried to match her ease by leaning back in my chair.
—I was born in this country, I said, not knowing what point I was trying to make.
I righted my chair and tried again. I said, Look, I would argue that I - I can speak more intelligently about this than you because I know more about it than you ever could.
—Wow, she said, her water bottle heading back to her mouth. Let's just leave that there before you get any more racist.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
