How we cite our quotes: (Poem.Paragraph)
Quote #1
He woke up crying. He had dreamed Josiah had been hugging him close the way he had when Tayo was a child [...] and he was overcome with all the love there was. He cried because he had to wake up to what was left: the dim room, empty beds, and a March dust storm rattling the tin on the roof. (V.103)
One way of looking at Tayo's sickness is that he feels disconnected from the love he used to feel as a child. Both the people he once loved, Rocky and Josiah, are dead.
Quote #2
They said that the deer gave itself to them because it loved them, and he could feel the love as the fading heat of the deer's body warmed his hands. (VII.11)
Love isn't something that only occurs between people in this book; the earth and animals also love.
Quote #3
He dreamed with her, dreams that lasted all night, dreams full of warm deep caressing and lingering desire which left him sleeping peacefully until dawn, when he would wake up at the first dim light with her presence and the feeling that she had been with him all night. (XXV.62)
The love affair between Tayo and "the woman" is kind of mystical. He doesn't just dream of her; he dreams with her. He feels like she's been with him in spirit all night long. Is this sweet or spooky? We say both.
Quote #4
The changes pulled against themselves inside him [ . . . ] The terror of the dreaming he had done on this bed was gone, uprooted from his belly; and the woman had filled the hollow spaces with new dreams. (XXV.76)
Falling in love with this woman is definitely a part of Tayo's healing process. Now instead of nightmares he has dreams about her at night. We'd call it an improvement.
Quote #5
The mountain outdistanced their destruction, just as love had outdistanced death. The mountain could not be lost to them, because it was in their bones; Josiah and Rocky were not far away. They were close; they had always been close. And he loved them then as he had always loved them, the feeling pulsing over him as strong as it had ever been. (XXV.77)
The realization that love doesn't end just because someone dies is a major step for Tayo in his healing process. At the beginning of the novel, he felt lonely and sad when he woke up and remembered that Josiah was dead. Now he doesn't need to feel lonely anymore because he can feel Josiah and Rocky's love all the time. It's transcends space and time, just like pizza.
Quote #6
They loved him that way; he could still feel the love they had for him. The damage that had been done had never reached this feeling. This feeling was their life, vitality locked deep in blood memory, and the people were strong, and the fifth world endured, and nothing was ever lost as long as the love remained. (XXV.77)
Sounds like love, or feeling, is a way to remember things. The feeling of love is locked "deep in blood memory," and ensures that nothing is ever lost.
Quote #7
Their days together had a gravity emanating from the mesas and arroyos, and it replaced the rhythm that had been interrupted so long ago; now the old memories were less than the constriction of a single throat muscle. (XXV.116)
Tayo and Ts'eh have a solemn, serious kind of love. You might even say it's…ceremonial.
Quote #8
The breaking and crushing were gone, and the love pushed inside his chest, and when he cried now, it was because she loved him so much. (XXV.116)
Tayo is still crying, but now it's because Ts'eh loves him. We're not gonna lie—this dude seems pretty darn emotional.
Quote #9
He held her fiercely all night, as if together their sweat and the heat of their breathing could lock out the moaning voices of the dark whirling winds. Together they made a place, remote and calm as the stars that lay across the sky. (XXV.159)
Tayo and Ts'eh's little love nest actually seems to protect them from the dark and the cold. Could it be that love is a kind of talisman against the evil of the witchery?
Quote #10
They had always been loved. He thought of her then; she had always loved him, she had never left him; she had always been there. He crossed the river at sunrise. (XXVI.33)
Who is Tayo thinking about here? If he's thinking about Ts'eh, why doesn't the text refer to her by name? By using the vague pronoun "she," could it be that the text is alluding to another female figure as well?