How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"I didn't mean to startle you," Katsa said. "I'm only looking for a space to practice my exercises."
The boy climbed from his stool and fled. (5.43-44)
Yeah, that's kind of the stock response Katsa gets from children. And adults. Which kind of puts her in the same boat as Frankenstein (who's not actually called "Frankenstein" in the novel, FYI). So the monster comparisons she keeps making? We can kind of see why she views herself that way. Lots of people seem to. And that would be pretty isolating.
Quote #5
His hand dropped, returning to his side, and he looked at her calmly, as if this were normal, as if friends she'd only just made always touched her face with their fingertips. As if she ever made friends. As if she had ay basis for comparison, to decide what was normal when one made friends, and what was not.
She was not normal. (9.129-130)
"As if she ever made friends." Ouch. It's pretty obvious that Katsa has felt so isolated for so long that she can't even see that she does, in fact, have friends. Raffin, for instance. And Oll. Giddon? He's got ulterior motives, so we're not sure we'd count him, but surely Helda and Bann are among her fans. As is Grandfather Tealiff. The thing is, she feels so separate from others because of her abilities and how she's had to use them over the years, that she can't see the forest for the trees. Or the friends she's made for the slights she's endured.
Quote #6
"My brothers gave me that name when I was little. It's a kind of tree in Lienid, the po tree. In autumn its leaves turn silver and gold. Inevitable nickname, I guess."
Katsa […] wondered if the name had been given fondly, or it had been an attempt by Po's brothers to isolate him—to remind him always that he was a Graceling. (10.26-27)
Of course this is where Katsa's mind would go. She's always been excluded—isolated, ostracized—for her Grace, and so she assumes that must be the case with Po, too. Like all people, Katsa tends to view the world through the lens of her experiences, and hers, so far, has been an experience of isolation.