How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Am I hurting you?"
"No," Nick said. "That was the stupid birds."
"They're very intelligent, actually," Alan told him as if he was under the impression Nick cared at all. […] "If you catch them young, you can teach them to talk."
"I don't see what the big deal about that is," Nick said. "I can talk."
"… Well, I caught you young too." (1.66-70)
If you've finished the book, you know that this is a big piece of foreshadowing, and if you haven't, well… you will. Either way, it starts to make you wonder about the whole nature versus nurture debate. Can something wild, in this case a raven, be domesticated and taught to behave like a human? Of course we domesticate pets all the time, but is that natural, or are we training them away from what their natural existence would (or should) be?
Quote #2
It was the look on Alan's face that unsettled Nick. He was obviously feeling something, something softer and more than pity, something that came naturally to Alan and that should probably come naturally to Nick. He felt somewhat at a loss. (2.142)
Nick has a lot of these moments where he knows there's something he should be feeling—something that should come naturally to him—but he just. Can't. Feel it. And in this quote, we even get the word "naturally" to emphasize, perhaps, just how unnatural Nick sometimes seems to be.
Quote #3
She looked at him as if she hated him, but she always did that.
Nick bared his teeth at her in a silent snarl and turned away from the mirror. (3.206-207)
Ah, another touching mother-son moment. Glaring, growling—it's the little things that make a relationship special. But seriously, that last part of the quote? Where Nick bears his teeth and more or less growls? That's no accident on the author's part. She's using Nick's actions to compare him to animal—to show us his animal side. Keep a look out for these comparisons. There's a boatload of them.