How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
There had to be a way out of here. Maybe, if I walked far enough down the right tunnel, I would emerge into sunshine. The thought made my whole body quiver. Then the sense of it struck me. There had to be a way out. There might be fifty. There had to be air vents, and there were drains that carried our wash water away.
Was that why they kept us scared and hungry and filthy? So we wouldn't look for a way out? (50.14-15)
Hahp finally realizes that since he's been treated like a rat in a cage, he's learned to think like a rat in a cage. The tunnels can't be an entirely self-enclosed system, so there's got to be a way out. And yet it didn't occur to Hahp until now to look for one. This shows how strongly the wizards have conditioned the boys to accept the way their lives are now (generally crummy, with no hope of escape).
Quote #8
Franklin would not leave Somiss.
Sadima shook her head. Somiss was not a brilliant man. He was still just an over-smart boy who enjoyed angering his father and bullying Franklin almost as much as he liked pretending to be important and heroic. Why couldn't Franklin see that? (57.8-9)
In Sadima's view, Somiss isn't an evil genius. He's not even a genius. And yet Franklin continues to treat him as one, carrying out his every request (or order, depending on how you look at it). It just goes to show that depending on your view, the world can look really different.
Quote #9
When I went to sleep, my dreams were about hummingbirds falling to the ground and fluttering, too weak to rise, and a wizard with icy eyes was stepping on them, crushing the life out of them. (62.20)
Paging Dr. Freud. Hahp's dreams have gotten pretty trippy by the time he's actually learning and using magic in the book. We're gonna go out on a limb and guess that in this dream, the hummingbirds represent the boys at the academy, and the wizard with icy eyes is Somiss. But is he actually killing them, or just draining the life out of them by crushing their wills? Dreams are weird like that sometimes.