How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Once the eye-burning stench of greasewood was gone, the beggars would swarm back to the boardwalk. But by then the shopkeepers' dogs would be off their leashes. Most were half wolf. All were underfed… Once in a while, I heard someone scream. It always gave me the shivers—how could people live there? (2.2)
Hahp can see the slums of Limòri from the roof of his father's house, and it's not a pretty sight. It seems like Hahp is missing the point, too—it's not like people want to live there, it's that they have no other option. Just like in the world we actually live in.
Quote #2
Twice a year children from South End were brought here and allowed to play for a few hours, like puppies let out of a filthy run long enough to air. Then they were carted home again to tell stories of magic waterfalls and fish as bright as flowers and all the rest. I had gone, once, when I was six or seven. I had cried, watching the stick-thin children run in circles, half-mad with delight. (4.12)
Aw, looks like Hahp doesn't like to be confronted with the reality of how poor kids actually live their lives. We can't really blame him, because it is pretty sad, but ignoring something doesn't make it go away.
Quote #3
Messengers were street boys, always. No one else was hungry enough to accept a few coppers to climb the endless stairs. (6.9)
Again we see that being born poor in Limòri truly stinks. Being a messenger, for instance, means facing exhausting amounts of running around, all for the equivalent of a few bucks. Hahp seems to realize that there's something wrong with the system, but he can't really put his finger on what it is.
Quote #4
Of course, Fishboy could read or he wouldn't be here. But where had he learned? There were no schools in the South End slums of Limòri. There were no schools in the farm villages, either. Most people never learned to read. (14.33)
Pro tip: it's easier to suppress an ignorant population than it is an educated population. And so it makes sense that reading and writing would be closely guarded skills in a world where social and economic inequalities are so prevalent. Heck, that even applies in our world. So if you're reading this, take a moment to be grateful that you're fortunate enough to be able to read things… on the Internet, even.
Quote #5
Sadima was dumbstruck. It was one thing to see a carriage from a princess story before her eyes, but to be asked to ride in it? The seats were deep green velvet, tufted, soft. (15.16)
To someone like Sadima, who's lived her whole life on a farm surrounded by other peasants, seeing an actual noble is like something out of a story. She's probably never seen that much velvet in her life before, either. People in Sadima's village are lucky just to get by; they'll probably never be able to afford luxury items.
Quote #6
Sadima stood to one side of the arch, her heart fluttery. Somiss was royal? No wonder Maude was taken with him. Sadima had heard of royalty in campfire tales, but in the stories they were almost always wicked. (17.46)
What's that? In the tales peasants tell, royal people are wicked? You don't say. We're just gonna take a stab at this one and guess that peasants tell stories about royals much the same way people in our world follow the gossip about Hollywood celebrities: with envy. Except that while celebrities aren't really oppressing any of us, the royals probably have a hand in keeping the peasants poor.
Quote #7
"But you must pretend to be our maidservant, no more. Always. It is against King's Law for any commoner to read or write." (25.30)
And here we have it: it's actually illegal for peasants to learn to read or write in this world. If that's not an obvious way of keeping the lower classes down, we don't know what is. For this reason, it's especially transgressive for Sadima to secretly teach herself how to read. Hopefully no one finds out…
Quote #8
"What was the best meal you ever had?" I asked him quietly.
He was silent so long I thought he wasn't going to answer me, but then he spoke. "A rich lady bought me a dish of fish stew once. From a vendor. She leaned down to put it in my hand and I could smell her perfume. I ran away from her, to hide before the bigger boys saw what I had." (34.23-34)
Poor Gerrard. He's never had a decent meal in his life, except for this one bowl of fish stew that a rich lady gave him. And even then, he had to gobble it down in secret, because the older boys would've probably tried to beat him up and take it. That's a crummy way to grow up if you ask us.
Quote #9
"My parents sold me to Somiss's father. The money kept them fed and warm for five winters." (43.15)
Franklin finally tells Sadima what the deal is between him and Somiss. He's actually a slave who belongs to Somiss's father. It's a bummer that slavery exists in this world, seeing as it's completely unethical to own another human being. But it's also an expression of the most basic social class issues, like who gets to be free vs. who is considered property. Guess which category poor people fall into most often?
Quote #10
And something dawned on me. I had made foods I had known all my life. I had made soap I had used all my life. He was still making the same bowl of fish stew and I knew why. When he was little, had he ever used soap? (54.19)
By this point in the story Hahp finally realizes how much of a privileged background he comes from, and how much this influences his ability to create things using magic (since he needs to be able to imagine something in complete detail in order to make it manifest, something that a kid coming from a lower-class background would have trouble doing). Maybe Hahp and Gerrard have little in common except that they're stuck at this awful academy, but then they begin to work together, crossing class lines and breaking the wizards' rules. Good for them.