How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The white doll-house-sized church above on the rock hillside is neglected, peeling paint and a broken window, the old priest must be gone. What I mean is dead. (2.10)
The church and Catholicism aren't necessarily portrayed in the most positive (or reverent) light in the novel, and this early reference to the crumbling church and the "old priest" (who's probably dead) paints a picture of religion in decay in her home region.
Quote #2
The old priest is definitely gone, he disapproved of slacks, the women had to wear long concealing skirts and dark stockings and keep their arms covered in church. (3.2)
Apparently the "old priest" was pretty old fashioned and looked to women and their fashion choices to help safeguard the morality of his flock. Again, we get an image of the priest's brand of Catholicism as being pretty outdated (and hostile to women).
Quote #3
This arm devoid of a hand was for me a great mystery, almost as puzzling as Jesus. (3.11)
Here the narrator is remembering a shopkeeper in town who was missing a hand. There are several references to Jesus and religion, and the narrator's desire as a child to participate in and understand Catholic ritual. She does not appear to be Christian per se, but Christian ideas and figures flow through a lot of her thoughts and perceptions about the world around her, including nature (which is really the only truly "holy" thing to her, it seems).
Quote #4
There are no dirty words any more, they've been neutered, now they're only parts of speech; but I recall the feeling, puzzled, baffled, when I found out some words were dirty and the rest were clean. The bad ones in French are the religious ones, the worst ones in any language were what they were most afraid of and in English it was the body, that was even scarier than God. You could also say Jesus Christ, but it meant you were angry or disgusted. I learned about religion the way most children then learned about sex, not in the gutter but in the gravel and cement schoolyard, during the winter months of real school. (5.23)
Here, the narrator offers some interesting musings at the origins of curse words in English and French, and how they're related to religious fervor. According to her, among secular English-speakers, the body is the scariest thing, whereas it's religion among French-speaking Quebecois Catholics.
Quote #5
When I started school myself I begged to be allowed to go to Sunday School, like everyone else; I wanted to find out, also I wanted to be less conspicuous. My father didn't approve, he reacted as though I'd asked to go to a pool hall. Christianity was something he'd escaped from, he wished to protect us from its distortions. But after a couple of years he decided I was old enough, I could see for myself, reason would defend me. (6.13)
The narrator gives us some more background into her fascination with Christianity. Her father, for whom irrationality seemed to be the biggest no-no around, believed the narrator would need "reason" to "defend" herself against religion's influence.
Quote #6
"Maybe I'll be a Catholic," I said to my brother; I was afraid to say it to my parents. "Catholics are crazy," he said. The Catholics went to a school down the street from ours and the boys threw snowballs at them in winter and rocks in spring and fall. "They believe in the B.V.M." I didn't know what that was and neither did he, so he said "They believe if you don't go to Mass you'll turn into a wolf." "Will you?" I said. "We don't go," he said, "and we haven't." (6.18-22)
Taking things even further than their father, the narrator's brother suggests that Catholics believe that people turn into wolves if they don't go to mass. In addition to emphasizing the family's general belief that Catholicism=irrationality, the moment is a nice bit of foreshadowing, since the narrator does kind of turn into a wolf (or some other kind of critter) at the end—in any case, she tries to live more like an animal and makes a lair. Sounds pretty wolf-like, if you ask us…
Quote #7
Later when I knew that wouldn't work, just Please be caught, invocation or hypnosis. He got more fish but I could pretend mine were willing, they had chosen to die and forgiven me in advance. (7.34)
As a kid, the narrator used to pray to fish, begging them to let her catch them. In fact, she even came up with a fish-themed version of the Lord's Prayer. Of course, the fish is a well-known symbol for Jesus, so her conflation of the fish with self-sacrifice seems pretty apt.
Quote #8
He said Jesus was a historical figure and God was a superstition, and a superstition was a thing that didn't exist. If you tell your children God doesn't exist they will be forced to believe you are the god, but what happens when they find out you are human after all, you have to grow old and die? Resurrection is like plants, Jesus Christ is risen today they sang at Sunday School, celebrating the daffodils; but people are not onions, as he so reasonably pointed out, they stay under. (12.28)
The narrator is relaying more of her father's thoughts on religion. It seems he was more impressed by nature than the "superstition" of religion. According to him, only plants (not humans) can achieve resurrection.
Quote #9
Then they accelerated and headed off towards the cliff where the gods lived. But they wouldn't catch anything, they wouldn't be allowed. It was dangerous for them to go there without knowing about the power; they might hurt themselves, a false move, metal hooks lowered into the sacred water, that could touch it off like electricity or a grenade. I had endured it only because I had a talisman, my father had left me the guides, the man-animals and the maze of numbers. (18.5)
As we get deeper into the novel, the narrator becomes increasingly spiritual and convinced that she can receive signs and visions through her interactions with nature and the landscape. Her epiphany while swimming in the lake seems to have been the catalyst for this increased interest in a nature-based spirituality.
Quote #10
I unfasten the window and go out; at once the fear leaves me like a hand lifting from my throat. There must be rules: places I'm permitted to be, other places I'm not. I'll have to listen carefully, if I trust them they will tell me what is allowed. I ought to have let them in, it may have been the only chance they will give me. (23.5)
Once the narrator has gotten rid of her friends, she starts pursuing some kind of connection or communion with her (deceased) parents. She starts looking for signs or clues of what she can do to make that happen. In the middle of the night, she thinks she hears something—or someone—trying to get in, but she isn't sure what it is. Later, she thinks it was her parents, and she regrets not answering.