How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I do not remember that meal very well. I am sure that Diran, conscious of his role as the oldest son and being a natural leader and optimist, said something to raise our spirits and give us hope. (5.2)
But he cannot remember it. Even though Vahan wants this last meal with his family to be special and meaningful, it's vague to him. It's as though he's showing us that he's not the optimist that his brother is, no matter how hard he tries.
Quote #2
Strangely, I wondered who would light the street lamps tonight, and somehow all those unlit lamps and the lamplighters who were not there to light them were the most hopeless sight of all. (6.3)
Street lamps are a weird thing to wonder about when you're being carted off to be held prisoner for no reason. Yet this shows us exactly how Vahan is thinking about his life, not as only what's happening to him and his family, but somehow what it means for the community too. It's doubly hopeless, then, that no one is even around to light the streets or do the day-to-day things that keep a society running.
Quote #3
Whatever pretense of hope or optimism remained inside me had by now completely disappeared, and I reached in the dark for the first hand I found and held it tightly, not knowing or caring whose hand it was. (6.14)
Read this one carefully. Vahan might say that his hope disappeared, but he still has hope to begin with. Some of his family have already been gunned down, while others are held prisoner with him, and yet he's still holding out hope for them.
Quote #4
I did not know what to do. I was supposed to be the one who got sick; I was supposed to be the one who Sisak nursed back to health. But somehow we had changed places, and now I was his older brother, his doctor and nurse. I was his last and only hope. (14.13)
How do you think this compares to the other deaths Vahan witnesses? When we think about how Vahan's brothers, sister, and grandma die, Sisak's death seems more comforting somehow, maybe because Vahan gets to stay with him and give him peace in his last moments.
Quote #5
I opened my eyes. I knew then, hopelessly, that dying on this bench in this auditorium was out of the question. I had to escape. (15.15)
It seems like Vahan never gives up hope of surviving, not even when he's imprisoned again. His undying hope is what keeps him pushing forward, always looking for a way out, and never giving up.
Quote #6
"It is very hard for Armenians to find food these days. But I'll make you a promise: As long as I eat well, you will eat well." (18.20)
Selim Bey gives Vahan hope, but he's not sure whether he can trust in that feeling. The guy provides him food, shelter, and protection, but is that enough to make Vahan cave to liking the guy? Vahan is still hoping he's wrong about Selim Bey because of all these things though.
Quote #7
"Don't look at my size," I heard myself say, a little louder and more firmly than I intended. "I can do any kind of work you want me to do, and I can work as long as you want me to work. I am very strong." (26.31)
Once Vahan starts to imagine the possibility of a home, he can't let go of it. He convinces the Tashians to take him in because he's been hoping for a better, safer life since the police first took his father away.
Quote #8
And the more miserable we were, the more wondrous and fantastical Constantinople became, until finally it seemed more a creation of a genie than of architects and stone-cutters. (33.21)
Did you notice how amazing Constantinople is in Vahan's mind? When he gets there, he finds it's just like any other place—full of possibilities, but also full of grief for his family. It's clear that it's not about the city, but what it represents to Vahan: hope for a new life.
Quote #9
I had been a reflection of a safe and privileged world, and beneath me was a net as wide as my father's influence, as strong as my mother's love. Now I was only one of two hundred and fifty orphans, and my future was nothing more than a white canvas, a block of marble, a lump of clay. (35.5)
It's depressing to think that only 250 orphans are left out of millions of people—and yet Vahan looks at the future with promise. He's not just going to be an orphan or someone with a hard life; he's going to make something of his life, just like you can make something of a blank canvas or clay.
Quote #10
I have learned about this life: I know, as my neighbors in Bitlis tried to tell me, that there is pain and disillusion in the heart of it. I know, as my father knew, that character and discipline are the steel that fortify it, and that somewhere, beyond pain and disillusion, great blessings are made. (35.19)
The last words of the book recall Vahan's father's words to him to "be steel," and to grow stronger. Vahan finally realizes that out of pain and suffering, he's grown up and learned a lot, and this gives him hope for what the future will be like.