How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
But this time was different. This time I sensed that something might be wrong, and every time I'd start to enjoy my freedom, I'd see my father being led away by the gendarmes. (3.6)
When the gendarmes take Vahan's dad, he starts to think about his freedom more seriously. It's always been something he's taken for granted, but now it seems like it's a commodity he might lose before he knows it. Too bad his premonition is right.
Quote #2
At dinner that night we all discussed what we had seen and what it meant and what we should do, as though we still had control over our lives. (4.14)
We feel for Vahan and his family here when they start to talk about what they've seen. It's already too late—and though they might not realize it at the time, Vahan certainly does later. Whether they like it or not, they no longer have freedom over their lives.
Quote #3
I told them who they had killed. And how they had killed them. I told them everything, but there was no relief, no freedom from it. (11.11)
Vahan is held captive in the novel, but he's also figuratively imprisoned in his own mind. He feels trapped with his troubling memories of his family's deaths, and feels guilty about surviving when they didn't—and this is a prison Vahan can't break out of.