How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Often, my mother stands next to me holding her hand up over her eyes to block the sun and looking out past the fences and into the trees and brush, waiting to see if her husband will come home to her. (1.6)
Mary's mom hopes that her husband will remain loyal despite his transformation into one of the Unconsecrated. That hope eventually fuels her decision to join the hungry hordes in the Forest. Does this make her noble or foolish? Do you think, perhaps, her husband returned to her, and that's what caused her to get too close to the fence the last time?
Quote #2
I sit in a chair near the window as [Cass] kneels next to Travis's bed, her lips moving in prayer. Travis's fever hasn't broken and he is rarely awake, though he often groans in pain and thrashes on the bed. After a few visits like this, I can see that she is weary and exhausted and lost, and so I go and kneel next to her and wrap her in my arms. She collapses against me in tears. (6.33)
Why do you think Cass is lost? Because she's lost Travis? Mary? Harry? Everything Cass had planned and hoped for in her life crashed and burned with Travis on the day he slipped and fell.
Quote #3
I think of Cass and her blond braids and the way she smells like sunshine and the way she sobbed over Travis when he was hurt. I can't be the end of her, the end of such sweetness and light. (8.23)
Sister Tabitha has a way of playing on people's fears to get them to do her bidding. She knows Mary's got obsessive curiosity issues, but she also knows that she's got friends. When Sister Tabitha threatens the end of the village, Mary can't help but think of sweet, innocent Cass. That thought slows her down, at least.