How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Despereaux forgot all his fear. He only wanted to hear the music.
He crept closer and then closer still, until reader, he was sitting right at the foot of the king. (4.26-27)
Despereaux has never been a particularly brave mouse before, but forgets his fear when he hears that wonderful music. Was this courage or was he just oblivious?
Quote #2
Despereaux squared his shoulders. He had made a decision. He would do as the threadmaster had suggested. He would be brave for the princess. (11.28)
Even though Despereaux has never been more terrified in his life (and his short life is probably about to end), he tries not to break down. It's easier for him to be brave because he had the threadmaster to encourage him. There's a lesson in there somewhere…
Quote #3
At the thought of being eaten by rats, Despereaux forgot about being brave. He forgot about not being a disappointment. He felt himself heading into another faint. But his mother, who had an excellent sense of dramatic timing, beat him to it; she executed a beautiful, flawless swoon, landing right at Despereaux's feet. (12.25)
Despereaux almost loses it when he hears his sentence spelled out for him—the awful realization that he's going to be eaten by rats—but his mother beats him to the melodrama. That sure didn't help.
Quote #4
He considered fainting. He deemed it the only reasonable response to the situation in which he found himself, but then he remembered the words of the threadmaster: honor, courtesy, devotion, and bravery.
"I will be brave," thought Despereaux. "I will try to be brave like a knight in shining armor. I will be brave for Princess Pea." (14.8-9)
The author is showing us that courage doesn't mean not being afraid. It means staying strong even when you're scared to death. She's also suggesting it's easier to be brave when you're doing it for something you believe in.
Quote #5
How best for him to be brave?
He cleared his throat. He let go of his tail. He stood up straight. "Once upon a time," he said out loud to the darkness. He said those words because they were the best, the most powerful words that he knew and just the saying of them comforted him.
The author's sneaking one of her strong beliefs here: stories are important. They can take you places you never thought you could go.
Quote #6
She turned on the stairs and looked back at Cook and smiled.
"That cauliflower-eared, good-for-nothing fool," said Cook, shaking her head. "What's to become of someone who goes into the dungeon smiling, I ask you?" (30.20-21)
Cook thinks that anyone who's not scared of the dungeons is just plain foolish. We guess it all depends on where you start from. Compared to Mig's other experiences, this might not have seemed all that scary.
Quote #7
The terrible foul odor of the dungeon did not bother Mig. [...] And so it was that the overwhelming stench of despair and hopelessness and evil was not at all discernible to her, and she went happily down the twisting and turning stairs. (31.1)
Without her senses intact, Mig doesn't get the full terrifying experience of the dungeons. It's not that she's brave, it's just that she can't appreciate the danger.
Quote #8
"Gor," said Mig, staring at Gregory with respect. "You eats the bones. You are most ferocious." Gregory ate another piece of chicken, a wing, bones and all. And then another. Mig watched him admiringly. (32.12-13)
Instead of running away screaming when she watches the jailer eat chicken bones, Mig is completely fascinated. Since she never really had the experience of feeling safe in her life, she's not easily scared.
Quote #9
Despereaux was pondering the reverse of that question. He was wondering not what he would do with his tail, but what he would do without it. He was sitting on a bag of flour high atop a shelf in the pantry, crying for what he had lost. (35.1)
Even though Despereaux has tried very hard to keep a stiff upper lip throughout this whole fiasco, he does break down and starts to cry when his tail is chopped off. Can you blame him for losing it once in a while?
Quote #10
The princess held very still. The only movement she allowed herself was this: She licked her lips, over and over again, because she thought that she could taste there the sweet saltiness of the soup that her mother had fed her in her dream.
"I have not forgotten, Mama," she whispered. "I have not forgotten you. I have not forgotten soup." (37.44-45)
In her scariest moments, Princess Pea thinks back to her mother in order to give her strength. Like when Despereaux was encouraged to be brave by the threadmaster, the author tells us that other people, even the thought of them, can help us feel courageous.