How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Am I crazy? Have I lost my mind? You can only call someone crazy if there's someone else who's normal. … Crazy: the new normal. (2.16 and 2.18)
Cassie decides that the baseline for "crazy" has probably moved since the alien attacks started.
Quote #2
The 4th Wave forces us into solitude, where there's no strength in numbers, where we slowly go crazy from the isolation and fear and terrible anticipation of the inevitable. (3.28)
Here Cassie makes a very good point. One of the Others' best tactics is making the other side feel crazy.
Quote #3
It didn't take long after the Arrival for all the conspiracy nuts to start buzzing about classified government projects or the secret plan to manufacture an alien crisis in order to take away our liberties. (5.56)
Alien invasion? Definitely the government's plot. Time to don the tinfoil helmets.
Quote #4
The mind was the last thing to go, washed away in the red waters of the Tsunami. The virus took total control. Some people went into a frenzy as it boiled their brains. (11.15)
This is your brain. This is alien plague. This is what your brain looks like on alien plague. Any questions?
Quote #5
[Sammy] being the one thing that's kept me from going completely crazy, the thing the Others haven't been able to take from me after taking everything from me. (12.5)
The thought of rescuing Sammy is a lifeline for Cassie, who should have, by all rights, gone bananas a looooong time ago.
Quote #6
"Zombie, do something," Dumbo begs me. "He's going Dorothy." Dumbo's referring to the recruit who snapped on the rifle range one day, turning her weapon on her own squad members. (46.24-46.25)
In the world of the book, "going Dorothy" is military slang for being crazy. This is curious given that, in The Wizard of Oz (both the book and the movie), Dorothy Gale is perfectly sane.
Quote #7
It is hopeless. It is crazy. Tank is the sane one because he sees it clearly. Which is why he has to go. (46.35-46.36)
Camp Haven has something of a Catch-22 situation where the only people who are actually sane are crazy. Tank figured out the truth, which is why everyone thought he was nuts.
Quote #8
There's my big takeaway from the Arrival. By killing us, they showed us the idiocy of stuff. The guy who owned this BMW? He's in the same place as the woman who owned that Kia. (56.21)
Ben reflects on a different kind of insanity: materialism. Can't take it with you, y'all.
Quote #9
Then she turns to me. "How do you know when you're going Dorothy?" (59.4)
For a moment, when Ringer figures out the Others run the military base, she feels like she's losing her mind. She quickly decides to trust her instincts.
Quote #10
I almost wish he would laugh or smile or shake his head. If he did anything like that, I might have some doubt; I might rethink the whole this-is-an-alien-head-fake thing and conclude I am suffering from paranoia and battle-induced hysteria. (64.18)
It's sort of sad that Ben would rather be medically insane than face the truth, but here we are.