Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Chapter 4 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
(Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote 1
"I thought I'd scared you off it. How's our haunted mansion faring these days? Still standing?" (4.79)
It's difficult for Jacob to see how Miss Peregrine's decrepit house could have ever been a home, especially when everyone else on the island thinks it's haunted.
Quote 2
My grandmother had bought my dad this ridiculous pink bunny costume, and he put it on and sat by the driveway waiting for Grandpa Portman to come home from five o'clock until nightfall, but he never did. (4.29)
Lots of Dad's resentment for Grandpa comes from this time when Grandpa didn't come home for Halloween. Their relationship never quite recovered from this betrayal of trust between father and son.
Quote 3
If Grandpa Portman wasn't honorable and good, I wasn't sure anyone could be. (4.52)
Finding out that Grandpa might be an adulterer doesn't just sting, it kind of shakes Jacob to his very core. Jacob wants to be Grandpa, but he doesn't want to be him if he's not as good of a person as he's thought.
Quote 4
"A young man, not much older than this boy here. […] Walked into town the morning after with not a scratch upon him. […] He only spoke once, to ask my father when the next boat was leaving for the mainland. Said he wanted to take up arms directly and kill the damned monsters who murdered his people." (4.117)
Here's an illustration of just how brave Grandpa was: Even though he's basically alone in the world, he's willing to not only keep fighting monsters, but to head off to another land to do it.
Quote 5
"Sure, I remember them," he said. "Odd collection of people. We'd see them in town now and again—the children, sometimes their minder-woman, too—buying milk and medicine and what-have you. You'd say 'good morning' and they'd look the other way." (4.100)
The children of the home always seemed strange to the villagers, but not because they looked weird (they probably left the weirder-looking kids at home) but because they acted unusually.
Quote 6
"I think—your aunt and I both thought—that there was another woman. Maybe more than one." (4.38)
If this is true, this changes Grandpa's identity in Jacob's mind from a brave explorer to simply an adulterer.
Quote 7
"All I can say is they weren't your regular sort of orphan children." (4.102)
The orphanage is separate from the rest of the island, away from the village and pretty difficult to get to. They want to be apart from everyone else to keep anyone from finding out their secrets.
Quote 8
It was true, of course, what my dad said: I did worship my grandfather. (4.52)
Jacob's dad thinks Jacob's admiration of Grandpa Abe is unhealthy because Dad doesn't think that Abe was a good person. To Dad, Grandpa is hardly a role model. He's just an adulterer and a bad father.
Quote 9
"It's amazing, isn't it? Everything he went through." (4.127)
Jacob tries to see the good in Grandpa, though, and tries to understand and admire his accomplishments, like the fact that he survived the war and always lived with honor.