How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Don't misunderstand me—a funeral is a funeral. Though my sister wasn't in that pine box, a body lay in it sure enough. Remember, I told myself many times during the reverend's eulogy, and then as people started shoveling dirt into the hole, that coffined body down there is dead. That's a d at the beginning and a d at the end. There's no forward or backward from "dead," and no breath either—"dead" stops a person cold. It does not make that body your sister, but it is sad, sad news. (1.4)
The funny thing is, we think Georgie is just in denial, but she's right: The body isn't Agatha's—it's Darlene Garrow's. Darlene's story turns out to be every bit as tragic as Georgie asserts. Why does Georgie need to remind herself here that no matter who's in the coffin, death is serious business?
Quote #2
My sister would never die and then lie there. It made no sense. (1.34)
This sounds like straight-up denial to us since people die and lie there all the time, no matter who they are.
Quote #3
If Ma had only wanted an apology for causing a scene at the funeral, I might have yielded. But she wanted me to voice my sorrow. She wanted me to say my sister was dead, deceased, perished, passed on. I would say no such thing. (4.3)
Yep, more denial, except that it turns out that Georgie is right and everyone else is wrong. Do we have any indication before Agatha's letter that she might not be dead? Is everyone else too quick to jump to conclusions, or do those conclusions make sense?
Quote #4
I'd like to point out that this is a sight short of what the place of someone's death should look like. People are supposed to die at home. They're supposed to have time to tell their last wishes. They're supposed to be able to pray, to repent for their sins, and to commend their soul to God. And the family? We're supposed to be able to gather round the deathbed, hear those final words, watch the dying breathe their last, and witness their countenance. So given all this, I do not think the presence of a big oak tree was asking too much. (12.4)
Sounds like anger to us. Georgie is moving right on through the stages of grief. She's upset that Agatha's body was found in a "nowhere place," without even a tree to mark the spot. Nothing happened the way it was supposed to. That's kind of the thing about death, though—it doesn't care a lick for plans or preferences. Otherwise Grandfather Bolte would never have died while Georgie's off looking for Agatha.
Quote #5
The body should be Agatha. It would be strange if the body weren't Agatha. Why wouldn't the body be Agatha?
Agatha was—very likely, for the most part, probably, almost certainly, yes, surely—dead. That was a d at the beginning and a d at the end. No forward or backward. No breath either. (12.38-39)
It looks like Georgie is finally moving toward acceptance of her sister's death. She sees now how all the evidence piles up in favor of the body being Agatha's.
Quote #6
There's no forward or backward from dead, and no breath either. My own thoughts. Earlier. About someone else—a someone else who turned out to be my sister.
And look at all that had happened as a result of Agatha's death. Wouldn't it be the same for the Garrows? If Mr. Garrow died (shot dead by me), there'd be a useful woman without a husband. There'd be no father for at least three children. Maybe Mr. Garrow was lawless. Maybe he did not deserve life. But Agatha was right: Mr. Garrow's living or dying could not be my decision. Why should my bullet be the one that punched his soul from his body and sent it barreling toward some eternal destination? (17.92-93)
Georgie has always admired and looked up to Agatha, and here she seems to finally embrace some of Agatha's ideas about the right to take life. Why does Georgie ultimately decide she cannot kill either Mr. Garrow or Bowler Hat, even though they are threatening both her and Billy's lives?
Quote #7
I had a hard time understanding how God could distinguish one Georgie Burkhardt from the myriads of thirteen-year-old girls with braided hair, brown eyes, and plain faces. If I had been sure that death was only a candle blown out, an endless oblivion as my body broke down and soaked into the earth, I would have found that a comfort. But now I was here—in this meadow with a gun, Billy tied up and hurting, and two bad men in our camp, both armed. In this situation, I found out that deep down I wondered if there might be a heaven and a hell and a capital-G someone waiting for me.
Spare me and we'll talk. Please don't let me die. (17.94-95)
Death becomes much more immediate for Georgie in this scene. Most people in her society seem to find the idea of an afterlife comforting, but Georgie is more comforted by the idea of oblivion. Understandably, she really hopes not to find out what waits after life in this moment.
Quote #8
But Billy was dying, for heaven's sake. Dying. There is a night-and-day difference between "dying" and "dead." (18.58)
We'd say that the key difference between dying and dead is that, in the first scenario, the person is still alive, so there's still hope and the potential to fix things. Feel free to disagree with us, though.
Quote #9
According to Mr. Olmstead, Grandfather Bolte fell in front of several customers. His heart gave out, Doc Wilkie said. He died instantaneously.
They waited to hold the funeral as long as they could. (20.10-11)
Georgie and her grandfather are very close. How do her experiences trying to prove that Agatha is alive actually help her to accept Grandfather Bolte's death?
Quote #10
It's too true that some survivors never got a chance to think of rebuilding their lives. These people breathed their last in temporary beds. We dug them graves at Mount Zion Cemetery, put their names (if they'd been able to tell them) on markers, and paid them the respects we were able.
Every once in a while, I rode Long Ears up to the cemetery and laid flowers on those graves. I tried to remember each person's particulars (a walk, a smile, the way they clung to a photograph). I spoke the names I knew.
"You are not in nowhere," I told the dead. (24.61-63)
Georgie seems to be greatly affected by the experience of hosting both the living and the dead victims of the lake fires, but the fires aren't really related to the rest of the story. So what function do the fires serve in the novel?