Half Broke Horses

by

Jeannette Walls

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Lily’s first child, named for her favorite flower (rose), Catholicism (Mary), and a useful herb. As a child Rosemary is fearless and accident-prone. Though Lily worries about her safety, she admires her adventurous spirit and gumption. Both rambunctious and sensitive, Rosemary cares deeply for animals, and occasionally sets her parents’ cattle free. In an attempt to prove she can handle ranch life, she later asks her father to teach her to skin a cow. She finds the process deeply disturbing and the family does not speak of it again. Artistic from a young age, Rosemary dreams of being a painter and is kicked out of Catholic school for being too disruptive. Lily accepts that Rosemary is not meant for academia, though insists she get a teaching certificate when she goes to college so that she has something to fall back on. Rosemary is also beautiful and resembles Helen, though Lily vows never to tell her this. At thirteen, Rosemary develops a crush on her parents’ ranch hand Fidel Hanna. After she is caught swimming on the Havasupai reservation with him, a furious and distraught Lily beats her to teach her a lesson. In response, Rosemary says she will never to beat her own children, and Lily reflects that her daughter stops listening to her from that day forward. Rosemary continues to butt heads with Lily as she gets older, especially in her choice to marry the unstable Rex Walls. Insisting that no place has ever felt like home since their family left the ranch, Rosemary says she may never settle down. Lily laments that Rosemary is the one child she could never teach. She calls both her and Rex “half broke horses” as they drive away at the end of the novel, signifying their inability to be tamed. Rosemary (who later changes her name to Rose Mary) is the mother of the book’s author, Jeannette Walls.

Rosemary Quotes in Half Broke Horses

The Half Broke Horses quotes below are all either spoken by Rosemary or refer to Rosemary. 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:
Women’s Strength in a Man’s World Theme Icon
).
Chapter 5 Quotes

"Just you remember," I said, "that this is what could happen when an animal gets freedom. Animals act like they hate to be penned up, but the fact is, they don't know what to do with freedom. And a lot of times it kills them."

Related Characters: Lily Casey Smith (speaker), Rosemary
Page Number: 142
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

But the Jesuits were used to dealing with untamed ranch boys, and they regarded Little Jim as one more rambunctious rapscallion. Rosemary's teachers, however, saw her as a misfit. Most of the girls at the academy were demure, frail things, but Rosemary played with her pocketknife, yodeled in the choir, peed in the yard, and caught scorpions in a jar she kept under her bed. She loved to leap down the school's main staircase and once took it in two bounds only to come crashing into the Mother Superior. She was behaving more or less the way she did on the ranch, but what seemed normal in one situation can seem outright peculiar in another, and the nuns saw Rosemary as a wild child.

Related Characters: Lily Casey Smith (speaker), Rosemary, Little Jim
Related Symbols: Half Broke Horses
Page Number: 192
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

I felt there was a lot more I could say about the subject of danger. I could have given her an entire lecture on it, talking about my dad getting his head staved in by a horse when he was three, about my Chicago friend Minnie getting killed when her hair got caught in machinery, about my sister, Helen, taking her own life after accidentally getting pregnant. Life came with as much adventure and danger as any one body needed. You didn't have to go chasing after them. But the fact of the matter was, Rosemary hadn't really listened to what I had to say ever since that time we visited the Havasupai and I gave her the whipping for swimming with Fidel Hanna.

Related Characters: Lily Casey Smith (speaker), Dad / Adam Casey, Helen, Rosemary, Minnie Hanagan, Fidel Hanna
Page Number: 257
Explanation and Analysis:

I shook my head and looked at the lilies. "I could cut you all the slack in the world, but I still think my daughter needs an anchor."

"The problem with being attached to an anchor," he said, "is it's damned hard to fly."

Related Characters: Lily Casey Smith (speaker), Rex Walls (speaker), Rosemary
Page Number: 258
Explanation and Analysis:

As Rosemary climbed into the car, Rex patted her behind like he owned it, then got in beside her. They were both still laughing as Rex gunned the motor the way he always did.

Jim put his arm around me and we watched them take off up the street, heading out into open country like a couple of half-broke horses.

Related Characters: Lily Casey Smith (speaker), Jim Smith, Rosemary, Rex Walls
Related Symbols: Half Broke Horses
Page Number: 265
Explanation and Analysis:
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Rosemary Quotes in Half Broke Horses

The Half Broke Horses quotes below are all either spoken by Rosemary or refer to Rosemary. 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:
Women’s Strength in a Man’s World Theme Icon
).
Chapter 5 Quotes

"Just you remember," I said, "that this is what could happen when an animal gets freedom. Animals act like they hate to be penned up, but the fact is, they don't know what to do with freedom. And a lot of times it kills them."

Related Characters: Lily Casey Smith (speaker), Rosemary
Page Number: 142
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

But the Jesuits were used to dealing with untamed ranch boys, and they regarded Little Jim as one more rambunctious rapscallion. Rosemary's teachers, however, saw her as a misfit. Most of the girls at the academy were demure, frail things, but Rosemary played with her pocketknife, yodeled in the choir, peed in the yard, and caught scorpions in a jar she kept under her bed. She loved to leap down the school's main staircase and once took it in two bounds only to come crashing into the Mother Superior. She was behaving more or less the way she did on the ranch, but what seemed normal in one situation can seem outright peculiar in another, and the nuns saw Rosemary as a wild child.

Related Characters: Lily Casey Smith (speaker), Rosemary, Little Jim
Related Symbols: Half Broke Horses
Page Number: 192
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

I felt there was a lot more I could say about the subject of danger. I could have given her an entire lecture on it, talking about my dad getting his head staved in by a horse when he was three, about my Chicago friend Minnie getting killed when her hair got caught in machinery, about my sister, Helen, taking her own life after accidentally getting pregnant. Life came with as much adventure and danger as any one body needed. You didn't have to go chasing after them. But the fact of the matter was, Rosemary hadn't really listened to what I had to say ever since that time we visited the Havasupai and I gave her the whipping for swimming with Fidel Hanna.

Related Characters: Lily Casey Smith (speaker), Dad / Adam Casey, Helen, Rosemary, Minnie Hanagan, Fidel Hanna
Page Number: 257
Explanation and Analysis:

I shook my head and looked at the lilies. "I could cut you all the slack in the world, but I still think my daughter needs an anchor."

"The problem with being attached to an anchor," he said, "is it's damned hard to fly."

Related Characters: Lily Casey Smith (speaker), Rex Walls (speaker), Rosemary
Page Number: 258
Explanation and Analysis:

As Rosemary climbed into the car, Rex patted her behind like he owned it, then got in beside her. They were both still laughing as Rex gunned the motor the way he always did.

Jim put his arm around me and we watched them take off up the street, heading out into open country like a couple of half-broke horses.

Related Characters: Lily Casey Smith (speaker), Jim Smith, Rosemary, Rex Walls
Related Symbols: Half Broke Horses
Page Number: 265
Explanation and Analysis: