The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story Chapter 31 Quotes
The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story Chapter 31 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
(Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote 1
Later, when she calmed down, she tried to diagnose the behavior of the SS soldiers—did they ever consider shooting them, or was it always a sick game of power and fear? […] "If so," she thought, "maybe their monstrous hearts contain some human feeling; and if that's so, then pure evil doesn't really exist." (31.44)
Antonina is always on the lookout for any little bits of goodness she can find during the war. It's sort of like picking out the M&Ms in a giant bowl of trail mix; happiness, like those M&Ms, can sometimes be hard to find.
Quote 2
As she hugged the baby tighter, words streamed from her mouth, and, in another chamber of the mind, she concentrated hard and repeated over and over the command: Calm down! Put the guns down! Calm down! Put the guns down! Calm down! Put the guns down! (31.35)
Courage has no gender, either. Antonina demonstrates great courage when she marches right up to a soldier with a gun in her face. We almost expect her to bend the gun like in a Bugs Bunny cartoon or stick her finger in it and make it explode.
Quote 3
"If felt words like mother, wife, sister, have the power to change a bastard's spirit and conquer his murderer's instincts, maybe there's some hope for the future of humanity after all." (31.62)
Antonina learns that the way to a Nazi's heart is by exploiting his sentimental feelings about his own family. Baking him swastika-shaped cookies is a close second. Antonina doesn't need to resort to hateful baking, though, because by reminding soldiers of their female relatives at home, she convinces them not to hurt her and her family.