How we cite our quotes: (Section Break.Paragraph)
Quote #1
When I woke, I was back in the double bed with a cool, damp bandage around my wrist. I was no longer wearing the jeans. My feet were tied to the bedposts with hard, scratchy rope. There were bandages wrapped around them, too. I pulled away, testing how tightly I was tied, and gasped as pain shot up my legs. (6.1)
And just like that, Gemma wakes up to find that she's become a character in a Stephen King novel. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but seriously—getting tied to a bed isn't exactly on our bucket list.
Quote #2
"It's not your escape route, if that's what you're wondering. Your only escape route is through me. And that's bad luck for you, I guess, since I've already made my escape by coming here." (7.34)
Ty's plan is pretty twisted. Kidnapping someone and taking her to a place where she can't run away and has to go through him to break out is pretty foolproof. Well, until snakes get involved, at least.
Quote #3
I found the darkest, coolest part of the house—in the corner of the living room, next to the fireplace. Then I sat and tried to think of ways to escape. I wouldn't let myself give up. I knew if I did, that would be it. I might as well be dead already. (12.5)
Even if escape seems impossible, thinking about it is how Gemma attempts to survive her ordeal. Giving in to the desperation of her situation in captivity will only kill her mentally—and possibly physically, too.
Quote #4
You tried talking to me when you returned, but it didn't work too well. You can't blame me. Every time you even looked at me I stiffened, my breathing quickening. When you spoke, I wanted to scream. But I gave myself little challenges. One time, I made myself watch you. The next time I asked you a question. By the thirteenth night, I forced myself to eat with you. (12.6)
Let us break this down for you: Gemma has been kidnapped, and the only person around for hundreds of miles is the guy who did it. She has to live in a house with him, and getting away isn't an option. We can't blame her for the panic she's experiencing as a result.
Quote #5
I went back to the main clearing, but the other paths out of that were no better, either. I just got more lost, tangled up in the maze of the Separates. I don't know how long I spent trying to get out […] But one thing I did know, you hadn't followed me. Not yet. I clung desperately to the hope that you thought I'd run somewhere else. (16.18)
Gemma has to know on some level that going through the Separates isn't like going through the wardrobe to Narnia; she's not going to end up somewhere else on the other side. Still, the temporary victory of getting away from Ty is enough to make her see it as a good thing.
Quote #6
My body and my brain and my insides had frozen solid and nothing would thaw them. I had slipped down, down into a dark, dark, empty place. You were saying something to me, your voice muted. I didn't want to surface. The truth was too hard to hear. (20.1)
Psychologically, the isolation of her captivity is the hardest thing for Gemma to deal with. For her, it isn't just about having been kidnapped—it's about being taken somewhere with no other people around. It's a totally unfamiliar setting for her to find herself in.
Quote #7
I leaned a little toward you. "So they kind of stole you, too," I said softly. I kept my nerve and held your gaze. Your eyes turned to slits. You knew exactly what I meant. They'd stolen you, just as you'd stolen me. (31.60)
The realization that her captor has been through a similar experience to her own is shocking for Gemma—and for us as readers. If Ty was stolen away from his dad's farm as a child and taken somewhere totally different, shouldn't that have deterred him from doing the same thing to someone else? We can't say for sure, but it's possible that in taking Gemma to Australia, Ty is trying to make right (in his own twisted way) what was done to him as a boy.
Quote #8
I moved around so I could look at her face. Even scared, she had beautiful eyes. Dark and brown with soft-looking eyelashes. She stopped searching for her herd to glance at me.
"You're trapped now, too," I told her. "Don't bother thinking of escape. He'll only come after you." (43.19-20)
Once the abduction of the camel occurs, Gemma often likens the camel's experiences to her own. And really, they're pretty similar. Ty keeps both of them confined and tries to acclimate them to their new surroundings so they will eventually accept him. The comparison certainly isn't lost on us. Don't believe us? Swing by the "Symbols" section.
Quote #9
The cluster of buildings got smaller as I drove, and eventually, I couldn't even see your figure in the mirror anymore. I started to scream then, but God knows what I was saying. I'd done it! I was out there, alone … without you. Without anyone. I was free. (55.2)
Imagine the thrill of driving away and leaving Ty and his chamber of horrors in the dust after being held there for weeks. Gemma may not have processed the fact that there really is nothing out there, but that isn't the point—in her mind, she has escaped and thwarted Ty.
Quote #10
Our full-service apartment feels like a prison, too, with its gray colors and cleanliness; the way I can't leave it without someone taking my picture. From its windows I stare out at the city … at the concrete and buildings, cars and suits. Some days I imagine the land that lives beneath it all, red and dormant; the land you love. Then my mind drifts to the desert; to the open spaces of color and pattern. I miss it, that endlessness. (106.4)
Here's the really interesting part: When she's returned to civilization, Gemma sees it with completely new eyes. Specifically, she sees it as a place of confinement—even though it represents freedom. She finds herself wanting to return to the beauty of the place where she was held prisoner. In other words, regardless of the legality of his actions, Ty has given Gemma a new experience and new outlook on the world. In a way, she is having the same experience he had when he was taken from the wilderness and brought to the city as a boy.