Dragonwings Family Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

Mother offered more advice, and added that Father had been lucky that the man he had killed had had no close kinsmen, for that sort of thing had led to feuds in the past. (8.61)

The Lees understand a sense of family loyalty when they act under the assumption that families will kill for their brethren.

Quote #5

"It's time I thought of myself," Father asserted.

Uncle was scandalized. "Supposing your father and mother had thought that? Or suppose their fathers and mothers had thought that before?"

"That's cheating." Father sagged in his chair and rested his hands on his knees.
"A superior man admits the truth," Uncle snapped. I could see Father was beat. (10.170-172)

Uncle Bright Star guilt trips Windrider with a sense of family duty when Windrider voices his wish to pursue flight separate from the Company. Windrider agrees with Uncle Bright Star that families would end with his kind of self-centered thinking.

Quote #6

"It's Mother who has to listen to [everyone in the village] laughing," I pointed out.

"I wish I could spare her that." Father chewed the end of the brush's wooden handle. "We have the easy part. All we have to do is fly. She has to live in the village." (11.14-15)

Moon Shadow and Father remind themselves and us readers that the family is not only suffering on the American front. We never hear of Mother's suffering.