He pulled Mama to her feet with an eagerness that made her stumble, fall into him. Leni saw the desperate edge of his enthusiasm.
-- Narrator / Leni (chapter 1)

Importance: This short passage establishes the narration’s technical attributes. The passage shows the third-person narrator inhabiting Leni’s thoughts through free indirect discourse: the narrator calls Cora “Mama,” just as Leni does. Once the reader knows that the narrator is speaking for Leni, the reader can see how acute Leni’s judge of character is. She is deeply observant, and the narrator’s language allows her to share those observations with the reader. The small action in this quotation is also a rendering in miniature of each of the three Allbrights: Ernt’s charisma is tainted by his uncontrolled emotions and thoughtlessness; Cora allows herself to be dragged into his ideas and desires; and Leni watches them both and worries.

Up here, there’s no one...
-- Large Marge (chapter 4)