How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph)
Quote #7
That night he dreamt of horses in a field on a high plain […] and in the dream he was among the horses running and in the dream he himself could run with the horses…and there was nothing else at all in that high world and they moved all of them in a resonance that was like a music among them and they were none of them afraid horse nor colt nor mare and they ran in that resonance which is the world itself and which cannot be spoken but only praised. (2312)
The unreal unity and tranquility of nature here takes you out of the action of the novel. Immediately after, John wakes up in a prison cell and is led along with Rawlins and Blevins toward Saltillo. There's a stark contrast between a fantastical image of how peaceful the land might be and how the land humans created actually is.
Quote #8
The other man walked behind them carrying the rifle and Blevins disappeared into the ebony trees hobbling on one boot much as they had seen him that morning coming up the arroyo after the rain in that unknown country long ago.
As Blevins is led to his death, how does the landscape mentioned here—both past and present—evoke a mood? How might a morning after the rain look like compared to a line of "ebony trees"? (Think Lord of the Rings here: dark tree things are almost never good.)
Quote #9
The country rolled away to the west through broken light and shadow and the distant summer storms a hundred miles downcountry to where the cordilleras rose and sank in the haze in a frail last shimmering restraint alike of the earth and the eye beholding it. (3333)
This scene is where John is about to ride up to the ranch where he was arrested, and where he hopes to find Alejandra. What could 'restraint' mean here, and how can it be shared by both John (a human) and the land?