How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Mother Barker examined Miss Sally carefully. She said a blackjack leaf went through Miss Sally when the big wind peeled the planks, one by one, off Miss Sally's old frame house and tossed them to the storm like brown sticks. She said the tornado took the handle off the iron tub and left the cow eyeless and gave Miss Sally the trembles.
"Not a thing more I can do," she said, shaking her head. (7.46-47)
And just like that, Miss Sally is gone, replaced by Trembling Sally. When the tornado destroys her home, something snaps inside Miss Sally and she never manages to heal, instead spending the rest of her days in madness.
Quote #2
"It tore down the Better Way?" asked Patience.
[…]
"You'd think he would have come home."
"No, he's out there babbling like a madman."
"Not Strong. Not my Strong."
"Crazy as a Betsy bug, I tell you. Your old man is crazy." (7.52-57)
Trembling Sally isn't the only one who loses her wind when the twister whips through town. Strong completely loses it, too, become a shell of his former self and skipping town without a word.
Quote #3
Abby's eyes followed the deranged woman around the room as Trembling Sally moved away from her. […]
Trembling Sally stood at the end of the bed, her eyes coals of fire. Her layers of clothes hung from her body haphazardly like the shabby wardrobe of a scarecrow.
"Wish I had a stick. I'd fix your red wagon, laying down there thinking you're so smart." (10.12-14)
Okay, so Trembling Sally has it out for Abyssinia. It isn't rational, and it isn't fair, but so it goes. Here's the thing, though: In this passage, Abby has been seriously hurt by Brother Jacobs. And yet from her distorted perception of reality, Trembling Sally sizes Abby up as a faker and promises to actually hurt her. Even when Abby's severely injured, Trembling Sally still isn't satisfied.
Quote #4
The woman was a warped log thick in the waves. Her powerful arms seemed to blot out the sun and were unhampered by her bulky apparel. The deranged woman's layers of clothing floated on the water like the tormented petals from some strange flower.
She grabbed Abby by the shoulders and held her under the vise of her grip. (18.13-14)
This book doesn't spend a whole lot of time describing what people look like. We get the occasional description of a special dress, but beyond that, people's looks largely go un-discussed. Except when it comes to Trembling Sally. And suffice to say, these descriptions are never favorable.
Quote #5
Abby watched Strong working daily in the field, and in the evening he chopped wood for the fireplace and spent the dark evenings gazing into the mystery of the flames—no flame was ever the same. Soon she knew he would rebuild his barbershop. But it would not be the same. Just as each flame that flickered changed, he had changed. Life would be different. A kaleidoscope of ever changing patterns. (18.37)
Strong has finally come home after losing his mind and taking the first bus out of town years ago. But just because he seems well, doesn't mean he's the same person he once was—whatever broke inside him when the tornado ripped through town may have healed, but madness has still marked him.
Quote #6
"Wonder if she's through fooling with Abby?"
"Hard to tell. The woman has a scar on her. Left by the tornado. Imagine she thinks Abby's the cause." (19.13-14)
The women of Ponca City are gathered around, talking about Trembling Sally trying to kill some of the Lightsey kids by giving them pretty and super poisonous tea. She's devious, for sure, and quite the planner. Her madness is described as a "scar," here—a permanent mark.
Quote #7
She dreamed of her old adversary, Trembling Sally, the nuisance who stalked her slumber. Trembling Sally was a troubling woman in the rapids of her dreams, a drunken tempest raging in her inner ear, one who wailed an awful wailing. Her sound scalded peace. (29.17)
Okay, so we know Trembling Sally's lost her mind—but here we see how mentally unsettling she is to Abyssinia, too. She "scald[s] peace" inside Abby's brain, wreaking havoc on this otherwise totally sane character.
Quote #8
The wild woman let out another tortured wail and, wielding her flaming torch, rushed toward the fleeing Abby. (29.33)
Part of what marks Trembling Sally as insane in this text is the idea that she's "wild"—she doesn't play by society's rules or share their investments, instead following unpredictable whims and doing things like, say, trying to murder four people in their sleep for no apparent reason.
Quote #9
The crazy, hollowed eyes of the woman stared at the free Abby. Then her torch lit the bedroom curtains. Fire danced on the bed, burning the crazy patch quilt, the feather mattress, and the feather pillows. But the fire was not satisfied.
Now the wicked fire demanded more. Its violent, ruby mouth kissed Sally. Sparks leaped up her clothes and sizzled.
The crimson flame licked at the pitiful woman, turning her hair to black straw. (29.36-38)
Ultimately, Trembling Sally succumbs to her own madness, destroyed by the fire she sets in an(other) attempt to kill Abyssinia. Note that Sally's described as "pitiful" here—she's a victim of herself now instead of a menacing terror to Abby. The fire "demands" to consume her, overcoming her with its power the way she's so longed to overcome Abby with her own.
Quote #10
"You know," Abby was saying as she served warm pomegranate wine to the women, "when we got here, I scrubbed us all raw. I washed the ashes and smut from our hair and bodies. I rinsed the smoke from the burning eyes of the children. But I could not wash the wailing of that woman from my mind." (30.7)
To be fair, Trembling Sally tried to murder Abby and Lily's kids while they slept, so it makes sense that Abby is a bit haunted by the woman. Still, though, we see again how Trembling Sally isn't just mad herself, but unsettles Abby mentally, too.