How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph), For Prologue: (P.Paragraph), For Epilogue: (E.Paragraph), For footnotes: (Chapter.F.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Mary Lou wiped fruit juice from her mouth with the back of her hand. "Maybe girls need an island to find themselves. Maybe they need a place where no one's watching them so they can be who they really are." (15.56)
For girls, isolation means no one is judging them. They get to figure out who they are without having to meet the expectations of anyone else. Yes, that's also the point of the book.
Quote #8
There was something about the island that made the girls forget who they had been. All those rules and shalt nots. They were no longer waiting for some arbitrary grade. They were no longer performing. Waiting. Hoping.
They were becoming.
They were. (15.58-60)
The words Bray uses here make a different between passive words and more active ones. The girls are doing things for themselves. They aren't passive anymore. They do things—including just be—based on their own decisions and desires, not those of anyone else.
Quote #9
Adina was near tears. She was exhausted, so exhausted that she thought she imagined the sound. It was the faint rumble of a car engine, like something remembered from a dream. Something that reminded her of normalcy. (27.35)
This shows how used to the island Adina has gotten. The sound of a car engine sounds like something that's dreamy and far away, instead of real.