How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"We were strangers—though as you can imagine, it did not take long for us to develop a feeling of comradeship, for we twenty were alone in a strange world. Just how alone and how strange none of us really understood at first." (18.18)
The rats are only at the very beginning of their transformation at this point. The real changes won't happen until they realize how very different they are after they escape from NIMH and come face to face with other rats, who no longer recognize them.
Quote #5
"We had, in a way, to learn all over again how to get along, for although the world outside the laboratory was the same, we ourselves were different." (19.5)
Here comes our old friend Learning, once again, trying to make everyone change. The world makes so little sense to the rats. It's as if they have changed so much that they cannot believe that the world is still the same. But since it is them and not the world that is different, they realize that they have to figure out how to adapt.
Quote #6
"So we were set apart from even our own kind." (19.6)
Here's the part of the story where great big muscles and long lives can't make up for what the rats have lost. When they realize that others of their kind will no longer accept them, this marks an important point in their transformation because it allows them to truly give up on their old ways.