How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
They took Deborah to a small, plain room, guarding her there until the showers were empty. She was watched there also [...] Deborah did what she was told dutifully, but she kept her arm slightly tuned inward so as to hide from sight the two small, healing puncture wounds on the wrist. (2.1)
Deborah's parents hovered over her in the first chapter. Here, she's being watched by the hospital staff. Having secrets—about her suicide attempt or her self-burning, for example—is one way for her to have something of her own. Shortly after this scene, Deborah slips into Yr, where she at least has privacy. In what ways does privacy help a person explore his or her identity?
Quote #8
The hidden strength is too deep a secret. But in the end…in the end it is our only ally. (2.24)
Dr. Fried remarks that there should be a test to find the healthy aspects of mentally patients, because it's these patients' inner strength that will give them comfort and help them heal. Mental health issues don't change the essence of who you are.
Quote #9
She had been living by the Secret Calendar (Yr did not measure time as the world did) and had returned to the Heavy Calendar in the middle of the day, and having then that wonderful and omniscient feeling of changing, she had headed a class paper: Now Januce. (3.1)
This is what secrets give the secret-keeper—a feeling of power. Here, Deborah is in control of going back and forth to Yr, and this control makes her feel like she has both power and a new cool, magical identity. She calls herself Januce—a reference to Janus, the Roman mythological figure who acted as a gatekeeper between worlds.