How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Paragraph)
Quote #4
We live in a housing project. It hasn't been up long. A few days after it was up it seemed uninhabitably new, now, of course, it's already run down. (76)
This is "home" in the literal sense, where the narrator and his family live. When it was new, it didn't feel comfortable to live in – perhaps it was too spotless and perfect. But that newness didn't last long, and now it already feels run-down. There is no happy medium here.
Quote #5
The beat-looking grass lying around isn't enough to make their lives green, the hedges will never hold out the streets, and they know it. (76)
The people who live in the narrator's Harlem neighborhood can't even find refuge within their own homes. They can try to spruce them up, try to pretend they're in a comfortable, safe place, but there's no getting around the bleakness of the outside world.
Quote #6
"Safe!" my father grunted, whenever Mama suggested trying to move to a neighborhood which might be safer for children. "Safe, hell! Ain't no place safe for kids, nor nobody." (78)
What a completely devastating thing to hear as a kid! Not even the one place where children should feel safe and protected can offer that to them. The idea of "home" as we might traditionally think of it doesn't exist for these kids.