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Peilan Guo / Polly Guo
Deming’s close childhood friend. When Deming is six, he and Polly move in with Michael, his mother Vivian, and his uncle Leon. Michael is a studious boy who looks up to Deming, spending all of his free time with him. As a result, he’s devastated when Deming is placed into foster care in the aftermath of Polly’s disappearance. Ten years later, Michael finds papers in his mother’s house showing that she voluntarily signed away caretaking responsibilities and officially approved of Deming’s placement with Peter and Kay Wilkinson. He then finds Peter and Kay online and discovers that they have an adopted son named Daniel who goes to SUNY Potsdam. After finding out the formula for SUNY Potsdam email addresses, Michael sends Daniel a message, and though Daniel ignores it at first, he eventually agrees to meet up. At their first meeting, Daniel learns that Michael goes to Columbia and lives with Vivian and her new husband, Timothy, in Brooklyn. And though he’s initially hesitant to see Vivian, Daniel accepts Michael’s invitation to come over for dinner, which is when Vivian gives him Leon’s phone number. This, in turn, enables him to find Polly in Fuzhou, where he stays for several months before returning to New York City and moving into a shared apartment with Michael.
Michael Quotes in The Leavers
The The Leavers quotes below are all either spoken by Michael or refer to Michael. 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 1
Quotes
There was a restlessness to her, an inability to be still or settled. She jiggled her legs, bounced her knees, cracked her knuckles, twirled her thumbs. She hated being cooped up in the apartment on a sunny day, paced the rooms from wall to wall to wall, a cigarette dangling from her mouth. “Who wants to go for a walk?” she would say. Her boyfriend Leon would tell her to relax, sit down. “Sit down? We’ve been sitting all day!” Deming would want to stay on the couch with Michael, but he couldn’t say no to her and they’d go out, no family but each other. He would have her to himself, an ambling walk in the park or along the river, making up stories about who lived in the apartments they saw from the outside.
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Chapter 2
Quotes
Daniel’s muscles contracted. So Angel hadn’t gone to Nepal. If they were still friends, if she was still talking to him, he would tell her about Michael’s e-mail, about Peter’s accusation of ingratitude, how torn he felt between anger and indebtedness. If only Peter and Kay knew how much he wanted their approval, how he feared disappointing them like he’d disappointed his mother. Angel had once told him that she felt like she owed her parents. “But we can’t make ourselves miserable because we think it’ll make them happy,” she had said. “That’s a screwed up way to live.”
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Michael Quotes in The Leavers
The The Leavers quotes below are all either spoken by Michael or refer to Michael. 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 1
Quotes
There was a restlessness to her, an inability to be still or settled. She jiggled her legs, bounced her knees, cracked her knuckles, twirled her thumbs. She hated being cooped up in the apartment on a sunny day, paced the rooms from wall to wall to wall, a cigarette dangling from her mouth. “Who wants to go for a walk?” she would say. Her boyfriend Leon would tell her to relax, sit down. “Sit down? We’ve been sitting all day!” Deming would want to stay on the couch with Michael, but he couldn’t say no to her and they’d go out, no family but each other. He would have her to himself, an ambling walk in the park or along the river, making up stories about who lived in the apartments they saw from the outside.
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2
Quotes
Daniel’s muscles contracted. So Angel hadn’t gone to Nepal. If they were still friends, if she was still talking to him, he would tell her about Michael’s e-mail, about Peter’s accusation of ingratitude, how torn he felt between anger and indebtedness. If only Peter and Kay knew how much he wanted their approval, how he feared disappointing them like he’d disappointed his mother. Angel had once told him that she felt like she owed her parents. “But we can’t make ourselves miserable because we think it’ll make them happy,” she had said. “That’s a screwed up way to live.”
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Explanation and Analysis:
