If these accounts never shocked me, it was partly because I didn’t yet have a solid enough sense of sex, let alone the erotic, to really know what to expect from it.
-- Narrator (narration) ("Switzerland")

Importance: These lines of narration reflect upon the narrator’s general innocence and inexperience about sexual matters when she was 13 years old. Her inexperience contrasts with the sexually active personal lives led by her two new friends, Soraya and Marie. However, the story ultimately serves to explore the mixture of experience, naiveté, and vulnerability exhibited by all three characters.

Brodman could not say what it was that he was meant to tell the child. Restored to life, he could no longer parse the infinite wisdom of the dead.
-- Narration ("Zusya on the Roof")

Importance: After Brodman awakes from his treatment, he feels deeply invigorated. He has survived a near-death experience, and as a result, he feels a new sense of wisdom and purpose. He...