How we cite our quotes: (Section Break.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"The sand's like a womb," you said. "Warm and soft and safe."
You buried your other hand, too. Your shoulders relaxed, and your body went still […] After a few moments you slipped off your boots, and stuck your feet under the sand, too. With all your limbs buried in like that, it was as if the sand had sprouted you. (13.54-55)
Ty's analogy of the sand being a womb fits in an interesting way with his notion that the land can make Gemma into a new person. The image of him growing out of the sand seems to back this up, with the wilderness creating new life from below the surface.
Quote #8
For the first time, I wondered how you'd found that place. Were there really no other people anywhere? Was it really just us? Perhaps any explorers had given up halfway, or died. There was something astonishing about being able to survive in that land. It seemed more like another planet than earth. (18.6)
Gemma seems to grasp here that it's Ty's intimate knowledge of the land and love for it that makes it possible for him to survive. He's able to see below a surface of sand and emptiness to the life underneath and connect with it.
Quote #9
"The land wants you here. I want you here," you called. "Don't you care about that at all?" (69.34)
Ty's connection with the land is so tight that he can speak for what it wants—and in this case, it wants Gemma. Or maybe he does. Of course, there's the possibility that he's delusional and trying to make an excuse to keep her there, but as a human, he definitely seems to connect with the desert in a way that people typically can't.