How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Title.Paragraph)
Quote #7
But myself is not listening. She refuses to listen. She's picking up another letter and another and another, frantically looking for a different answer.
She feels sick, so sick she could vomit.
Because she thinks she knows why Chester brought Grace here.
And it wasn't to elope. (28.22-25)
Poor Mattie. Poor Grace. Mattie's realization that Chester brought Grace to the North Woods to kill her is the nail in the coffin. (Too soon?) Mattie's right; a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. And we wonder at this point in the novel what Mattie will do with her knowledge of the Grace/Chester affair.
Quote #8
"Things ain't always what they seem, Mattie. You remember that. Just because a cat has her kittens in the oven, it don't make 'em biscuits." Things are never what they seem, Pa, I thought. I used to think they were, but I was wrong or stupid or blind or something. Old folks are forever complaining about their failing eyesight, but I think your vision gets better as you get older. Mine surely was. (29.icosahedtrom.7-8)
Mattie's learning more and more about her community and her world, and she's leaving the ignorance of childhood behind for a multi-faceted view of the world. It's not always easy to come to terms with these realizations, but Mattie is determined to do so—and Pa seems to think she's ready, too.
Quote #9
"But it's not right, sir. I shouldn't be called names. Shouldn't catch a beating. Shouldn't have to stay in the kitchen, either."
"How old are you, Weaver? Seventeen or seven? Don't you know that what should be and what is are two different things? You should be dead. Luckily, you aren't. You think on that the next time you decide to take on three grown men." He stormed back out. (31.limicolous.22-24)
Mattie's not the only person maturing throughout the novel. After Weaver gets in the fight with the trappers, he, too, has to come to terms with how the world is versus how he wants it to be. Mr. Sperry, the owner of the hotel, compares Weaver to a child, and in some ways, he's right—there's a big difference between childish idealism and idealism tempered with a mature view of reality, after all. Which does Weaver have, and how does his idealism change throughout the novel?