The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story Chapter 26 Quotes
The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story Chapter 26 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
(Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote 1
Confined to her bed's well-padded prison, Antonina rose occasionally to hobble the few painful steps onto her balcony. […] Being bedridden had slowed the world down, given her time to page through memories, and brought a new perspective to some things. (26.3)
In some cases, confinement can be nice. It might give you time to reflect, for example. In this case, Antonina is reflecting about how crappy her life is during the war—but maybe her new perspective will make it less crappy.
Quote 2
For people attuned to nature and the changing seasons, especially for farmers or animal-keepers, the war snagged time on barbed wire, forced them to live by mere chronicity, instead of real time, the time of wheat, wolf, and otter. (26.2)
War changes everyone's lives; it even changes the lives of the animals in this book. Who will think about the otters during the war? Who?
Quote 3
"And, in this small way, our own private family Underground ceased to exist." (26.25)
Sadly, the war changes the Żabiński family dynamic. Antonina and Jan grow distant, and so do Ryś and his father after Ryś pulls a prank and Jan punishes him. However, odds are Ryś would have needed to be punished as he got older, anyway, war or not. So Antonina is maybe being a little dramatic here.