How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
If he grew bored, [Tom] simply took refuge in a daydream in which he was a hero who rescued beautiful girls from air-pirates. (1.16)
Even though he spends his days with a feather duster in his hands, Tom dreams it's a sword. This foreshadows upcoming courageous events, but it also ends up being disappointing, because being a courageous pirate isn't everything Tom dreamed it would be.
Quote #2
[Tom] could feel his heart pounding with excitement. After all those dull years spent dreaming of adventures, suddenly he was having one! He had saved Mr. Valentine's life! He was a hero! (3.3)
Tom is using lots of exclamation points. That's how you know things are really heating up: exclamation points! Adrenaline? Courage? What is going on with Tom here?
Quote #3
"I ran out of the house and saw Valentine's great black ship moored at the end of the garden with his men waiting. They came after me, but I escaped." (6.19)
Hester's story shows us just how much courage she possesses. Even after witnessing her parents' murder, she manages to hold herself together and escape.
Quote #4
Tom was laughing helplessly at the closeness of their escape and at the sheer surprise of finding himself still alive, and Hester laughed with him. (15.62)
Tom and Hester may have just performed a courageous feat by jumping onto a moving city, but it's important to remember that they're not action heroes. They're still kids, and the relief at surviving makes them giddy with laughter.
Quote #5
"NO! [...] You know her, and she asked you for help, and you ought to help her! You're just a coward, eating up little towns that can't escape, and murdering people, and holding people in the slave-pit because you're too scared of your own men to help them!" (17.31)
A repeating idea in this book is that the kids—Tom, Hester, Katherine, and Bevis—are courageous. The adults aren't. And the adults are the ones who are running the world. Are they living in what amounts to a cowardly world?
Quote #6
[Tom] didn't feel like a hero, he felt like a murderer. (24.12)
Courage isn't looking so hot anymore, eh, Tommy boy? Sometimes being brave and doing what feels right aren't the same thing.
Quote #7
The Lord Mayor will go nowhere without his new bodyguard. (25.2)
The Lord Mayor and courage don't exactly go hand in hand. It's easy to be a stone-cold jerk when you have an all-powerful army of cyborgs following you around.
Quote #8
It felt like a different Thomas that they were talking about, someone brave and strong who understood what had to be done, and felt no doubts. (26.53)
Tom refers to himself as "Thomas" when talking about the brave side of his personality that he doesn't identify with. Does this tell us anything about names in the novel? Does Tom consider himself incomplete without this brave side, in the same way that "Tom" is an incomplete form of "Thomas"?
Quote #9
It was the sort of adventure that Valentine had written about. (28.3)
Well, here we learn that Valentine isn't all lies. Sure, he's a despicable dirt-bag, but he at least performs feats of treachery, instead of just saying he does.
Quote #10
[Valentine] wishes he had the courage to stand up to Crome the way [Katherine] wants him to, but it is too late for that, too late, too late. (31.35)
Who knew that Valentine wishes for courage, just like the Cowardly Lion? All his murderous, evil actions result from a lack of courage, from fear. It's kind of sad. Well, it would be sad if he weren't such a jerk. If violence stems from a lack of courage, then maybe Tom has it all wrong: heroic deeds arise out of fear, but true courage means facing up to yourself questioning your own actions.