Identity Quotes in The Host

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

Because Fords Deep Waters lived inside a human body, irritation was sometimes inescapable. (Prologue.2)

It's difficult for Wanderer to separate her feelings, if she has any, from the feelings of her host body. It makes us wonder what parts of emotion are ruled by the mind and which parts are ruled by the body's physiology. (Ask an adolescent boy.)

Quote #2

I'd bound myself securely into the body's center of thought [...] until it was no longer a separate entity. It was me. Not the body, my body. (1.4-1.5)

Humans take for granted that we only have one body. It's ours and no one else's. Wanda's species, however, takes different bodies. There's a short acclimation period after Wanda wakes up in her new form, and she has to consciously remind herself that the body she's inhabiting is hers. She has to make it her possession. (She could probably take some tips from Jared.)

Quote #3

On every planet we took a different name. (2.18)

Names are closely tied to identity in the world of The Host. No wonder Wanda's identity is so fragile, she doesn't have a name.