How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Be warned, however, this is no Story of a Bad Boy, no What Katy Did. If strong ideas and action offend you, read not more. Find another companion to share your idle hours. For my part I intend to tell the truth as I lived it. (Preface.1)
Charlotte contrasts her narrative (that is, the story she's telling about herself) with two other nineteenth-century texts about young adults, Thomas Bailey Aldrich's Story of a Bad Boy (1869) and Susan Coolidge's What Katy Did (1872). Aldrich's is a boy's adventure story, while Coolidge's is the tale of a girl/tomboy who must learn to be good. Charlotte claims that her journal is different from these stories because her writing is true, contains radical ideas, and defies expectations about what a girl's story can be, especially during that time.
Quote #2
To complete this elegant picture, Captain Jaggery sat upon one of a pair of armchairs in the fine full dress, an open book on his knee. It was, in fact, the Bible. When I came in he rose to his feet and made an elegant bow. (5.8)
The captain's main reading material on the ship is the Bible. But does Jaggery himself seem to follow Christian values in his treatment of the crew? Does Jaggery practice what he preaches, or is it all, as Charlotte's phrasing suggests, just an "elegant picture"?
Quote #3
"Talk to them, Miss Doyle," he urged. "Show them a little softness. Read to them from your moral books. Preach the gospel if you have a mind. Listen to their tales. I promise, they will fill your pretty head with the most fantastical notions." (5.37)
Charlotte's role on the ship, according to Captain Jaggery, is to act as a civilizing force. He thinks that her presence, along with reading from moral books, will improve the men. This notion was common in nineteenth-century society, but is it true aboard the Seahawk?
Quote #4
I resolved more. I determined to keep to my quarters and then and there spent two hours composing an essay in my blank book on the subject of proper behavior for young women. (8.27)
Charlotte is so freaked out by trying on boys' clothes that she attempts to correct herself by writing a moral essay. What is the difference between writing a moral essay and recording her adventures?
Quote #5
While he labored I read to him from on of my favorite books, Blind Barbara Ann: A Tale of Loving Poverty. He was listening intently when his needle snapped in two. (9.5)
The book Charlotte mentions doesn't actually exist, though it's a clever reference to the didactic fiction (meaning, fiction that's written to teach something) that was given to women to read during the nineteenth century. From the title we can guess that Barbara Ann is blind, poor, and an object of both our pity and admiration. She is also presumably a paragon of female virtue. How does Charlotte's narrative (the story she is telling about herself) challenge Barbara's? Also, why does Ewing snap his needle in two?
Quote #6
Suddenly I sat up. But Zachariah had died! I had seen him beaten to death, committed to the sea. Was it his ghost then who had saved me? I remembered thinking of an angel. Had I hallucinated the moment? Made a story of it myself? It was like the kind of forecastle yarn I'd heard the sailor tell so often. I had not believed them. Not then. And yet – what was I to think other than that a miracle had transpired? (16.3)
The men's tales have stuck in Charlotte's mind and almost convince her that she has indeed seen a ghost. Oh, the power of a good story! Can we compare Charlotte's disbelief of the crew's stories to Mr. Doyle's reaction to his daughter's journal? Is a ghost appearing in the rigging as fantastic as a girl working as a member of the crew?
Quote #7
"Come now, gentlemen!" the captain barked. "This is a court of law. All of you are required to speak the truth. You swore upon the Bible to do so. I'll ask again, did any of you see this girl with this knife?" (18.80)
In Jaggery's courtroom, the Bible becomes not so much a moral guide as a means of intimidation. The captain uses the Bible to bully the men during the trial.
Quote #8
Regarding Captain Jaggery, the log read simply. At the crew's urging I wrote that our noble captain had kept his post at the wheel during the hurricane, only to be swept away in the storm's final hour. Mr. Hollybrass was afforded the same heroic death. I have been skeptical of accounts of deceased heroes ever since. (22.2)
Once Charlotte becomes the keeper of the Seahawk's log, she learns that history is very much open to interpretation. Just because something is written down, doesn't make it true.
Quote #9
Though Fisk and Barlow insisted I move into the captain's quarters, I continued to work watch and watch as before. In between I wrote furiously in my journal, wishing to set down everything. It was as if only be reliving the events in my own words could I believe what had happened. (22.3)
As she writes down what has happened, Charlotte is able to reflect on her journey. By telling her story in her own words, her adventures become believable. How is Charlotte's writing of the journal different from her father's experience of reading it?
Quote #10
I glanced toward the fireplace and was startled to see a blaze there. It took me another moment to realize that my journal was being consumed by flames.
I made a move toward it.
"Stop!" my father cried. "Let it burn."
"But..."
"To ash!" (22.150-22.153)
Charlotte's father confiscates her journal and destroys it. (Weird. We thought only fascist dictators burned books.) Mr. Doyle is censoring his daughter's writing and by doing so, he is telling her who she can and cannot be. The burning is a rejection – and a very violent one – of who Charlotte has become. If her father believed the book was only fiction, then why would he insist on burning it? Is it the spelling he finds so unsettling? Or the ideas?