How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
I could not fly. I had crashed. I was not lighter than air after all. I'd fallen, and a great shame seeped through me. I was heavy as stone. All my life I'd told myself I was light and could outrun sadness. I could fly away and keep flying forever. But I could never catch up with my father. […] He was gone, well and truly gone, and now everything had caught up with me: all the years of sailing away from my family, and my sadness. (20.56)
This is the problem with letting your dreams feel too much like reality. Matt has avoided facing his father's death for so long that when he's confronted with evidence that he can't really fly everything comes crashing down on him. Not only can he not fly, but his father is really and truly dead, and now he has to handle both losses.
Quote #8
She'd stood there before her Lumiére projector and showed her photos of the skeleton, explained them, and then described our encounters with the cloud cat in the middle of the Pacificus. When she answered questions from the audience, her voice never shook, and she rarely stumbled on her words or hesitated. Quite apart from that, she looked wonderful in a fitted striped suit with dark lapels, her hair chestnut and glowing. "Hello," I said. "You're famous now." (21.4)
This is one of Kate's dreams that have become reality. She's proven that her grandfather wasn't a raving lunatic, and she is now well on her way to becoming a respected member of the scientific community.
Quote #9
It had not been easy. When I'd first started at the Academy there'd been many bad, sleepless nights. I missed my bunk on the Aurora, and Baz and Captain Walken and all the crew. I missed being in motion. And I missed my father, more acutely than I ever had before. There'd been plenty of times I'd been so lonely and miserable I'd wanted to quit and return to the Aurora. But then, unexpectedly, one night I'd dreamed of my father, even though I was landlocked. I was flying alongside the Aurora, and he'd come and joined me, and when I woke up that morning, everything was different. As long as I could still dream about him, I knew everything would be all right. I didn't need to be aloft to find happiness. It could find me wherever I was: on the Aurora, or here in Paris, or back home with Mom and Isabel and Sylvia. (21.52)
This is a major turning point for Matt. To realize that he doesn't need all of his metaphorical security blankets in order to be happy is a huge step, and shows immense emotional growth. Do you think he could've had this epiphany if the adventure with the pirates had never happened?