How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"A gun is not a weapon," Einar once said to Sig. "It's an answer. It's an answer to the questions life throws at you when there's no one else to help." (2.25)
This helpful nugget of advice comes to Sig from Einar, who has no problem with using guns under specific circumstances. Still though, he feels that guns shouldn't be used unless there's no other option.
Quote #2
All that would be left would be the struggle to survive in a world of danger, both natural and man-made, with the occasional speck of gold dust coming his way. Just enough to keep that stupid dream of easy money alive, the dream of fantastic wealth, of ease and luxury and fine things for the rest of his days, but in reality not enough to live on for even a week. (8.3)
There's no denying it's rough for the gold-rushers, and violence only adds to it. In fact, there seems to be danger lurking around every corner in Nome what with all the new settlers. The book shows us that while everyone is on edge and prone to causing problems, there's no need to be violent just for the sake of it.
Quote #3
"No," Maria said, her anger wearing her out so quickly. "No, he mustn't … My children must not know evil things. They must learn to trust in the love and the care of God." (12.16)
It's sweet that Maria wants to protect her children from the gun and violence it represents, but we can't help but wonder whether she's being sensible or naive in doing so. After all, violence comes into her kids' lives whether she wants it to or not.
Quote #4
Einar said, putting the box on the table. "You can open your eyes. Good. Inside this box is the most beautiful thing in the world." (18.16)
If we were asked to think of one hundred words to describe a gun, we're not sure beautiful would be at the top of the list. Einar sees the intricacy and design behind the weapon though, and to him, that's what makes it beautiful in a complex way. Yet his wife dies from one too, and there is nothing beautiful about that.
Quote #5
"But what happens when the bullet hits something?" she said. "Someone, I mean. That's not beautiful. That's terrible." (18.44)
After Maria dies, Anna takes up the torch for talking poorly about the gun. She doesn't get how her dad could call something beautiful when it killed her mom. The truth is, the gun itself might be an amazing invention, but it does horrible things, so can we ever separate the two in our minds? For Anna, the answer is no.
Quote #6
He tried not to smile, for Anna's sake, but inside he felt the best he'd ever felt in his whole life. It had felt amazing, incredible, indescribable. It hadn't been frightening at all. (18.56)
Have you ever shot a gun? If you have, was it easy? If you haven't, what do you think it would be like? Sig feels a rush when he shoots the revolver, but later he wonders whether that's frightening in it's own right.
Quote #7
She saw her mother, or most of her, lying on the floor. Her head was out of sight around the foot of the bed, but she was lying still and her legs stuck out at a strange angle. Her dress was rucked up above her knees, and then Anna saw the floor of the shack was slowly changing color, from brown to red. (27.27)
Anna's perspective of their mom dying is pretty rough, mainly because we know it's completely unnecessary for Maria to die, particularly in such a gruesome fashion. The book doesn't shy away from showing us the violence, even when it's depressing.
Quote #8
He leaned right into her as he did and pulled violently on the rope, so that she gasped a couple of times. That seemed to make Wolff pull even harder, and he lingered, enjoying the act of binding her. (32.38)
Wolff is no stranger to violence, and here he seems to get a kick out of hurting Anna while he's tying her to the chair. It's no surprise that he's excited by violence when he causes so much of it in the book.
Quote #9
Not just Anna lying on the bed, with Wolff standing over her, tugging at his waistband. Not just the shape of his father's corpse under the blanket, not the pool of his own blood in which he lay, flowing freely from the wound to his head. (36.2)
Luckily Sig wakes up and stops Wolff before he can hurt Anna any more than he already has. We can't help but notice that most of the violence is against women in the book. While Einar dies, he freezes to death, and Wolff causes his own wounds—the only people hurt by others are women.
Quote #10
To pull the trigger, or not to pull the trigger? It was such a tiny act, such a small difference between doing it and not doing it. So small a choice, was there really any difference at all? And yet there was, and he had chosen to pull the trigger. It was easy. (37.4)
Switching it up from Hamlet's famous "to be or not to be," Sig contemplates what he should do about the gun. We know he chooses not to shoot Wolff, but do you think he makes the right choice?