The word fragile mean that delicate and you have to get tougher and that Is what ma told Elijah.

 In the text it stated that ma made me feel fragile, so the first thing that came to mind was how fragile she get if she saw a toady frog as big and round as this one.

Yes,there are is when I was getting picked on at school ,and I told my mom and she said get tougher and I did and the kids left me alone.