How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I did not want to go to the academy. But what I wished, what I feared, didn't matter a crap to my father, and it never had.
"Sit up straight," he repeated. My mother made a little gesture of protest and started to say something to him. He lifted one hand and she lowered her head. (2.15-16)
Hahp's father is clearly an abusive dude, and both Hahp and his mother suffer under his iron fist (or whatever kind of fist he actually has). It must suck to have to obey the orders of a power-hungry family member who doesn't care about what you want out of life, and who'll use force to get what he wants instead. Attending the academy at least gets Hahp out of his father's household… but as we'll see, it's not much better in terms of suffering and pain.
Quote #2
"I am just glad Papa died," Micah said tightly. "His heart was broken the day you were born. This would have gutted him. After what that magician did to Mama… " (13.21)
Micah and Sadima's family is no stranger to suffering. Not only did they lose their mother due to a magician's greed, but they also endured heart-rending poverty and harsh living conditions. On top of that, they had to put up with a father who had a love-hate relationship with his daughter because her birth was one of the causes of his wife's death. This doesn't sound like a really happy home.
Quote #3
"We are going to change the world," he whispered in her ear as he set her down. His face was bright with hope and belief. "The poor will eat," he said. "The sick will heal. No woman will ever have to die as your mother did." (25.39)
Franklin and Sadima both know from personal experience that the world is full of suffering, and they both want to change that by helping bring magic back into the world. They're in for a surprise though, when it comes to how to bring magic back into the world—and how much suffering that'll mean for both of them.
Quote #4
It was getting harder for me to talk, harder to think, and I couldn't eat more than two apples a day. Something had soured inside me—it was like drinking vinegar. My stomach cramped so painfully that I could barely stand it. At least I wasn't quite starving. Not yet. (32.2)
When Hahp figures out how to magically manifest food, all he can make at first are apples. Turns out that man cannot live on apples alone; whether it's the acidity or the fiber, something's not right with Hahp's digestive skillz. Slowly starving to death sure doesn't sound like any fun.
Quote #5
Tally and all of Will's roommates sat dull-eyed and sad on the benches, standing up now and then to try the stone again. They were scarecrows. It was torture for me to walk past them, make food, and walk out, knowing their eyes were following me, their mouths full of bitter saliva. I stopped eating. But after two of Franklin's classes had come and gone, it seemed stupid. My not eating wasn't helping anyone. (38.2-3)
It's bad enough to be on the brink of starvation yourself, but to see others suffering the same way, and to not be allowed to help them? That really stinks. All of the boys are in the dark about why the wizards are putting them through all this. To weed out the weak? To get them used to being complicit in hurting others? Who knows.
Quote #6
We all obeyed, like the smelly, beaten-down, well-trained animals we had become. I closed my eyes again. Tally was dead. I assumed Joseph and Rob and a boy whose name I had never learned were dead as well. Will looked half-dead—not from hunger, but from sorrow. (44.4)
Ah, survivor's guilt: a special kind of suffering. Hahp and the other boys struggle with the negative feelings that come about since they're somehow lucky enough to keep living, while other boys couldn't. Since they have no idea what the wizards' end game is, that makes it even tougher to accept that they're still alive for a reason.
Quote #7
"It will all have been worth it, Sadima."
Sadima reached up to wipe a tear from his cheek. She knew what he meant. He meant his whole life, everything he had suffered at Somiss's hands. If it ended up saving lives and feeding people, he could bear the pain. (45.33-34)
We get the feeling that we've only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how much Franklin has suffered while living with Somiss. After all, Somiss is an arrogant, delusional, power-hungry sadist. Who knows what kinds of punishments he comes up with for Franklin when Franklin doesn't fulfill his every whim?
Quote #8
"If you leave us, Franklin will be very sorry… I will make sure of that."
Sadima blinked, stunned into stillness until she heard his door close. Then she slumped into a chair.
All his life Franklin had borne punishment he had not earned.
Somiss knew she could not add to that. (49.14-17)
Somiss figured out that Sadima has feelings for Franklin, and thus she won't leave if she knows that Franklin will take punishment in her absence. For Sadima, this is a really awful threat: she wants to leave to save herself, but she won't be able to bear it if Franklin suffers because of her. What's a girl to do?
Quote #9
Franklin's shoulders sagged. "I can't, Sadima," he whispered, then paused. "I just can't." There was so much pain in his eyes that Sadima stared at him, wishing she could hear his thoughts.
"What's wrong?" she whispered. "What does he have you doing?" (53.13-14)
Franklin sure got the short end of the suffering stick. Not only does Somiss threaten to punish him (and he actually does punish him sometimes), but Somiss also makes him do horrible things to other people. In this case, Franklin is capturing beggars from the street in order to lock them up and start a school of magic. No doubt this involves lying and possibly even force, hence why Franklin feels so bad about it.
Quote #10
"That's everyone?" Somiss rasped. He hadn't so much as bothered to count the dead? No one answered him. He seemed not to notice. "You will soon be asked to recite the first song perfectly," he said. "You will go hungry until you can." (56.20)
Somiss (a) doesn't care about the dead, (b) thinks starvation is a valid learning tool, and (c) is oblivious to the suffering of others (but we knew that already). It's really disturbing that a person like that would be allowed to run an academy. Probably anyone who might contradict Somiss is either too afraid to do so, or has tried with disastrous results. Because arguing with wizards seems like a terrible idea.