Knowing that appearance is everything, Daniel already knows he looks different from everyone else, which causes him to be this silent boy who's extremely observant.
He has this self-deprecation, seeing himself as a crumb. "Crumbs didn't want to be noticed but were as noticeable as an open sore, tucking themselves away to avoid the places of highest concentration..."(59).
That point of belittling his value and internalizing these differences between himself and other messes up his desire to not stand out and be an alien. It's sad that no matter how uninvolved some minorities are with society, they're somehow pulled into the situation and suffering from the hierarchy of influence of those that are preferred.
Coming from someone who's also super quiet, deeply observing surroundings kind of becomes a daily thing. Daniel's very watchful from trying to blend. But at the same time, he's a little obsessed with comparing himself to what he's heard or seen.
From being tossed around from place to place and having this horrible feeling of unwantedness, he never has an actual home to return to. Home is supposed to be a safe place to feel comfortable, but for Daniel, nearly nowhere has that amount of comfort unless reunited with his mother. In every situation he knows less about his mother, he loses his trust in people because of one true destination of comfort, where he knows he'll be accepted naturally.
At this point in his life, it's too common to not be wanted by parents. It's like he can't accept this generosity and love that his foster parents give because of their previous desires for a younger child "whom they had wanted more" (58). After reading that, I felt pretty struck by how much he can't put his trust into anyone and can't imagine himself being important. He can't get past the fact that there are people willing to help him because of his recurring lost trust in those that have broken their promises in the past.
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