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Joar
Ali is a member of the teenaged friend group depicted in C. Jat’s The One of The Sea. She is the last member to join the group, making friends in school with fellow outcasts Kimkim, Joar, and Ted. Ali’s parents are negligent, and she’s never told them that one of their friends raped her. She is the one who gives Joar a knife in case he has to use it against his abusive old man. Near the end of the novel, Ted reveals that Ali had to move out of town and died when she was 18 in a surfing accident. Ali’s death hangs over her friends—particularly Joar, who was in love with her—and represents how youth can’t last forever. Louisa’s similarities to Ali, however, show how similar stories continue to play out across generations.
Ali Quotes in My Friends
The My Friends quotes below are all either spoken by Ali or refer to Ali. 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 4 Quotes
If you’ve had people who can make you laugh like that, you never forget it. If not, words are pointless. Either you have smelled a remarkable fart, or you become one of those adults who stands at an auction a quarter of a century later thinking it’s a painting of the sea simply because the painting is called The One of the Sea. Adults really are out of their minds.
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Chapter 17 Quotes
It’s funny, the way our memory tricks us. Ted was twelve when he met Joar and the artist, almost a teenager, but he could hardly recall life before them. For more than a year they had no one but each other, but despite that, that isn’t how Ted remembers that time. In his mind, there were always four of them.
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Chapter 19 Quotes
Only then did Ali look out at the first row of the audience. There sat her friends. Joar, Ted, and the artist. Wearing dresses.
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Chapter 20 Quotes
Ted doesn’t mention that last bit to Louisa. Nothing about the knife.
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Chapter 46 Quotes
Joar had sold many bicycles in his life, but that day was the first time he had sold his own. And that was the money they used to buy the canvas and paint that would change the world.
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Chapter 51 Quotes
In a voice so fragile that Louisa has to lean across the table to hear, Joar explains that he had prepared a small box. He was going to pretend he’d found another bird, and look extra happy so his old man would hate him more than ever. He would leave the knife under the flowers outside the window again, then he would wait until his old man stumbled into his room, and when the bastard grabbed the box Joar would reach through the window for the knife and stab his old man before he had time to react. It was a good plan. It would have worked if he had gotten the chance.
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Chapter 57 Quotes
Early one morning, not long after her eighteenth birthday, she went out into the water and never came back.
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When Louisa hears that she cries so hard that the whole roof sways. She bitterly regrets asking. Because who can make someone grieve for a person they never even knew, so that it hurts this much? She cries so it feels like her ribs are breaking. Joar gets so unnerved by her tears that he eventually mumbles:
“It was… it was over twenty years ago.”
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Ali Character Timeline in My Friends
The timeline below shows where the character Ali appears in My Friends. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 17
...over how dry they are. He looks around and asks Joar and the artist where Ali is. It turns out there are not just three friends but four, and they’re not...
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Chapter 18
...to geniuses. Louisa asks more about The One of the Sea, and Ted points out Ali to her. Louisa wants to hear more.
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Chapter 19
Ted tells Louisa that he and his friends had never met anyone like Ali. Ali was free-spirited and used to sing in French, even though she wasn’t a traditionally...
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...school year before Ted’s big summer by the pier. He, the artist, and Joar meet Ali when she comes out of the principal’s office with bloody knuckles and a black eye....
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At school, Joar and the artist are on one track, Ted is on another, and Ali is on a different one. But after school, they all find their way to the...
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...turns to winter, the friend spend more time by an old shed, smoking between classes. Ali gets into mock fights with Joar, and Joar is easy to provoke. Joar, Ted, and...
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Chapter 20
Twenty-five years later, in the present, Louisa tells Ted that she likes Ali. Ted isn’t surprised because he thinks Louisa and Ali have a lot in common, and...
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Louisa abruptly asks Ted if Ali was ever raped. Parts of Ted’s story, including Ali’s reluctance to trust people remind Louisa...
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Over time, Ted learned the story about how Ali’s dad used to drink a lot. He never wanted her to call him “Dad,” instead...
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Louisa thinks Fish and Ali would’ve gotten along. She asks now where C. Jat got his signature idea to draw...
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Chapter 21
...his past with the artist and Joar. Twenty-five years ago, some older girls are bullying Ali, so Joar comes up with a plan to help her, spreading gossip that turns the...
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Chapter 25
After the incident, the artist just runs away for the afternoon. Joar, Ali, and Ted eventually spot him getting paint from the storeroom with Christian. The artist has...
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Chapter 27
...vandalism, and men came to paint over it. From then on at the pier, Joar, Ali, and Ted try to convince the artist to draw more, but he doesn’t. He even...
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Chapter 28
...learn that first prize was simply to have a museum hang the winner’s painting up. Ali was also disappointed in the prize. Ted explains that it was more about raising the...
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Chapter 32
...asleep and dreaming. The pleasant dream reminds him of the day 25 years ago when Ali and Joar came up with a scam to get supplies from the store for the...
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Chapter 39
...pier, Ted introduces his friends to the concept of petrichor, the smell of rain. Joar, Ali, and the artist are impressed that Ted knows things like this. On the way home...
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It turns out the bird isn’t quite dead, so Ali urges the artist to take the bird out. He does, but even when the bird...
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Chapter 44
...hear more. Ted finally tells the parts of the story he held back, like how Ali gave Joar the knife and how Joar hid it in the flower beds. He tells...
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...it for a week with Joar coming over every day to feed it. Along with Ali, the artist, and Joar’s mom, they have a ceremony to free the bird. The bird...
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Chapter 46
Twenty-five years ago, Ali comes up with the idea of stealing and selling bikes to pay for the artist’s...
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The next day, Ali, the artist, and Ted all wait for Joar, but he never comes. A worried Ali...
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...is nervous and ashamed but eventually shows Joar all the things he needs. Outside, when Ali and Ted see Joar and the artist come out with so many paints, they fear...
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Chapter 47
...brother have that conversation about children, Ted goes down to the basement and finds Joar, Ali, and the artist waiting for him. He thinks something is wrong because they’re all so...
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...Joar convinces them all to steal his old man’s car. The artist, Ted, and even Ali are apprehensive, but Joar assures them he has something important to show them. Joar drives...
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Chapter 49
...is learning that he belongs in a museum, among other accomplished artists. As they’re leaving, Ali sees a sprinkler by the museum, and they all jump out in the sprinklers, for...
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Chapter 50
...his ears and made Kim say Kim twice. From then on, Joar called him Kimkim. Ali stuck with just “Kim,” and Ted, who loved the artist, rarely said his name at...
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Chapter 51
...deed right then. When Ted gets to the house and goes to Joar’s room with Ali and Kimkim, he thinks he sees a bird land by the window. Ted thinks of...
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Chapter 53
...up with him. On the roof, Joar points out toward the houses and says that Ali used to fantasize about living in a normal-sized house and having a normal job and...
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Louisa looks out at houses like Ali used to, and she says that she would like to live with her friend Fish,...
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Chapter 54
Twenty-five years ago, the evening of Joar’s old man’s accident, Joar learns from Ali that she is moving away because her dad got a new job far away. Joar...
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That evening, Joar and Ali go on a long drive. On the drive, they stop by the sea and pick...
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Chapter 55
...ago. For that adventure, he stole his old man’s car again. Joar drives himself, Kimkim, Ali, and Ted back to the museum, where Joar takes another painting off the wall and...
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Chapter 57
Meanwhile, Ali says goodbye to Joar for the last time on the steps outside her house. They...
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In the present, Louisa is overwhelmed and sad to learn about Ali’s death, even though it happened over 20 years ago. Christian’s mom says that art is...
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Chapter 59
...to the sea. Louisa asks Ted and Joar if they can live without Kimkim and Ali, and they say that it still feels like their friends are with them, in a...
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