How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"He sets out milk for the milk snakes just to see them slither. He lets the garters sun and have their babies on the cement of the icehouse step and feed off the gardens. He don't mind any kind of snake, can handle them like they were puppies. Copperheads, he talks to and if they don't listen right, he grinds their heads into the ground."
Uneasily, M.C. laughed. "How come he fell out with the green-grass snakes?" he asked.
"They did something wrong, most likely," Ben said. "Probably made up with them now, though." (11.139-141)
We don't know if we can add much to this except that, in addition to Mr. Killburn's clear affinity for snakes, there is a kind of creepiness to the whole thing. It's hard not to think about the Garden of Eden (especially since the Mound is so full of fruits and vegetables) and the special importance the snake had in ruining Eden for Adam and Eve. So M.C.'s uneasiness about Mr. Killburn in this scene may also have something to do with the way snakes have popularly been portrayed since Biblical times…
Quote #8
In death, the rabbit looked to be peacefully resting on its side, gazing down at the stream below. Except that each of its four feet had been sliced cleanly away. A rosy stain of blood covered each stump.
I killed it clean. Not like that.
He searched the Mound.
Dirty devils! What kind of power, if they need rabbit's feet for luck? Be glad to get away from here. (12.200-203)
Okay, this is a little spooky. M.C. assumes that the Killburn men cut his dead rabbit's feet off, but we don't really know who did it because there isn't proof that the Killburns did it (plus, they say they don't harm animals). So what's going on here? What's the point of this scene? It does seem like it's kind of a bad omen, doesn't it?
Quote #9
Now he asked the knife, "Why did she do it?"
And the knife said in the voice of Lurhetta: "Follow me."
But which way? How do I know how to get to you?
The knife would say no more. (14.83-86)
Okay, we don't think the knife is actually speaking to M.C., but then again, this whole book does seem to allow for the possibility that M.C. may somehow feel guided by Lurhetta's spirit through the medium of her knife.
Another way to think about this whole scene between M.C. and the knife is this: Maybe M.C. isn't hearing Lurhetta exactly but more like his imagination of Lurhetta. Maybe he has dreamed her to sound and think a certain way. So in other words, he's actually talking to and guiding himself.