How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"I felt a sharp pain in my hip; then it was over. What they were injecting and why, I did not know. Yet for twenty of us those injections were to change our whole lives." (15.55)
The pain in Nicodemus's hip only lasts for a brief second, but the pain (and the potential benefits) of his transformation will last far, far longer. At this point in the story, it must have been particularly scary for the rats, because they don't even know what the injections are for. And it's not like they can read the label… yet.
Quote #2
"First, we were learning more than any rats ever had before, and we were becoming more intelligent than any rats had ever been." (17.4)
It's almost like these rats are explorers, or astronauts, or pioneers. At the same time that this must be exciting for the rats, it must also be bewildering.
Quote #3
"We could not detect either of these things ourselves. That is, we didn't feel any different, and since we had no contact with the other groups, we had no basis for comparison." (17.8)
Have you ever wondered if you were changing but not been sure? That's how the rats feel at this point. Because they have been separated from their "normal" peers, they have no point of reference. They don't know what normal is anymore.
Quote #4
"We were strangers—though as you can imagine, it did not take long for us to develop a feeling of comradeship, for we twenty were alone in a strange world. Just how alone and how strange none of us really understood at first." (18.18)
The rats are only at the very beginning of their transformation at this point. The real changes won't happen until they realize how very different they are after they escape from NIMH and come face to face with other rats, who no longer recognize them.
Quote #5
"We had, in a way, to learn all over again how to get along, for although the world outside the laboratory was the same, we ourselves were different." (19.5)
Here comes our old friend Learning, once again, trying to make everyone change. The world makes so little sense to the rats. It's as if they have changed so much that they cannot believe that the world is still the same. But since it is them and not the world that is different, they realize that they have to figure out how to adapt.
Quote #6
"So we were set apart from even our own kind." (19.6)
Here's the part of the story where great big muscles and long lives can't make up for what the rats have lost. When they realize that others of their kind will no longer accept them, this marks an important point in their transformation because it allows them to truly give up on their old ways.
Quote #7
"[…] we had wondered what a rat civilization would be like. Oddly enough, Jenner, my old and best friend, took little part in these discussions; he remained rather glumly silent and seemed disinterested." (19.25)
Is your spider sense buzzing and telling you that Jenner might be a traitor? Ours, too. The use of the words "glumly silent" and "disinterested" give us a hint that something is definitely up with Jenner and that whatever that is will be all the worse because he is Nicodemus's oldest friend.
Quote #8
"All these things we worried about and talked about and puzzled over. But we could not find and easy answer—because there was none.
"There was, however, a hard answer." (19.30-31)
The easy answer seems like it would be to follow Jenner and his gang, who believe that rats should lives as they always have. The hard answer, of course, leads the rats to develop the Plan. Notice that the choices are easy and hard, not bad and good, as if the rats are trying to reserve judgment.
Quote #9
"'I doubt you'll need it […] now that he's learned he can't get out.'
"But they were underestimating Justin. He had learned no such thing." (15.56)
If there's one thing we learn about Justin, it is that he never gives up and he won't back down. The fact that the scientists underestimate Justin is a sign that his transformation has truly begun and his abilities have developed.
Quote #10
Martin said, "I'm going to go to Thorn Valley, somehow, someday." (28.35)
At the beginning of the book, all of the Frisby children seem very young and childish. But by the end, they have experienced a lot: a sick brother, a mother's dangerous expeditions, a house moved by rats. They also learn a lot about who they are when they learn about their dad. This change is reflected in Martin's desire to go find the rats. The more childish, fearful Martin that we met earlier would never have had the guts to travel all that way, but the new and transformed Martin certainly does.