How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
All these years later I still ask myself if I should have left my mother and sister. I ask myself this question almost every day. At the time it was just a fact like so many others we had faced in the last few weeks. (8.8)
Regret is a tough pill to swallow. We can't help but feel that Vahan's regret is a little misplaced, since he was in an impossible situation and couldn't help his mom and sister at all. Still though, he feels pain when he thinks about running away, because it meant that he had to leave them behind.
Quote #8
"This is how steel is made," he said, which was what our father used to say whenever circumstances tested our character, which wasn't very often. "Steel," my father said, "is made strong by fire." And this was our fire. But I did not feel like steel. (9.6)
Vahan's dad's words are super important to his development as a character, and the meaning of the book. It's clear that Vahan needs to suffer to become stronger, but we're pretty sure that even his dad would agree this is too much pain for one teen to endure.
Quote #9
And it was not the war. Or rather, it was the other one no one had declared, the one the snow could bury and the wind could blow away. (19.14)
Here we see that Vahan and his family are at war, but not in a fair fight—they have been taken, beaten, killed, all for no reason, and without question. Maybe it's because the Armenians were just rounded up and disposed of that it bothers Vahan so much.