How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
For the first time in my life, I was hungry and there was no food, I was thirsty and there was no water. I knew then as I had not known before that the room was real and that my home and my room and my bed had been a dream. (6.22)
Vahan goes from having a warm bed, a belly full of food, and some servants to help around the house, to having nothing. Did you notice how he says about his home seeming more like a dream than reality? That's because that is his reality now.
Quote #2
I thought, as I closed my eyes, that I was still Vahan Kenderian, son of Sarkis and Meera Kenderian, safe because I had always been safe. I did not realize that my brother and I had crossed a line, that we had lost more in the last month than the presence of our parents and the protection of our name. I did not realize that Bitlis was no more our home now that Kars or Van, and that the world did not very much care that we had once ridden in coaches and slept in fine beds whose sheets were changed three times a week by a houseman named Karnig. (9.16)
Since we only see Vahan in his home briefly before the problems start for his family, a lot of what we learn about his past comes through flashbacks. In a way, it makes his lack of home seem that much greater, since he used to have so much. During these moments when he has nothing, he reminds us that this is not how his life always is.
Quote #3
I stepped away and looked up at the windows, certain now that Pattoo and his family were dead and that I was standing in front of someone else's house, or no one's house. (11.4)
We've all heard the saying a house is not a home, but Vahan gets to experience this time and again when he sees houses that are no longer homes to people. Since the Turks take all the Armenians out of their homes and claim them (and the stuff in them) for themselves, it's hard to tell where home even is.