How we cite our quotes: Paragraph
Quote #1
Her fingers were busy and intent, but her skirts were full and long, so that before she could pull them free in one place they were caught in another. It was not possible to allow the dress to tear. "I in the thorny bush," she said. "Thorns, you doing your appointed work. Never want to let folks pass—no, sir. Old eyes thought you was a pretty little green bush." (8)
The world looks different when you're old—that's what Phoenix is saying here. To her aged eyes, this plant looks like a harmless green shrub, but in reality, those green leaves are thorns. She also talks to the bush, which might be totally batty to some but is totally normal to Phoenix. Phoenix sees everything around her, human or not, as having a dynamic life and purpose of its own.
Quote #2
But she sat down to rest. She spread her skirts on the bank around her and folded her hands over her knees. Up above her was a tree in a pearly cloud of mistletoe. She did not dare to close her eyes, and when a little boy brought her a plate with a slice of marble-cake on it she spoke to him. "That would be acceptable," she said. But when she went to take it there was just her own hand in the air. (14)
Like a wanderer in the desert hallucinating an oasis, Phoenix imagines a pleasant break with a sugary snack. Some people have interpreted the cake as a representation of the Christian rite of taking communion. Do you think that's what's going on here? What would it mean to have such a symbol at work here?
Quote #3
There was something tall, black, and skinny there, moving before her.
At first she took it for a man. It could have been a man dancing in the field. But she stood still and listened, and it did not make a sound. It was as silent as a ghost.
"Ghost," she said sharply, "who be you the ghost of? For I have heard of nary death close by." (21-23)
In Phoenix's world, the supernatural and the natural blend seamlessly. It's not odd to her that she sees a ghost—it's just odd that she doesn't know whose ghost it is.