How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"Kill them? You mean kill them all?"
"They're almost starving now, Sara Louise. They'll die slowly with no one to care for them."
"I'll take care of them," I said fiercely. "I'll feed them until Auntie Braxton gets back." Even as I heard myself say it, the words hacked at my stomach. All my crab money, my boarding school money—to feed a pack of yowling, stinking cats. I hated cats.
"Sara Louise," the Captain said kindly, "even if you had the money to feed them, we can't leave them in the house. They're a health hazard."
"A person's got the right to choose their own hazards."
"Maybe so. But not when it's getting to be a problem for the whole community."
"Thou shalt not kill!" I said stubbornly, remembering at the same time that only the day before I had been rejoicing that not one word of the blasted Bible applied to cats. He was gracious enough not to remind me. (9.21-27)
Yes, the cats are a nuisance, but Louise just can't bear to let them die. The poor things. She knows that the Captain's idea is the best one they have, but that doesn't make it any easier to be responsible for another living creature's death. Guess Louise doesn't really have it in her to kill Caroline, after all.
Quote #5
I could probably live out my life on the island in my own quiet, crazy way, much as Auntie Braxton always had. No one paid much attention to her, and if it hadn't been for the cats she would have probably lived and died in our midst, mostly forgotten by the rest of us. Caroline was sure to leave the island, so the house would be mine after my grandmother and my parents died. (With only a slight chill I contemplated the death of my parents.) (13.1)
Louise has become pretty emotionally detached from the ones she loves. Here, she is thinking about their deaths like they're no big deal, focusing more on inheriting the family house than anything else.
Quote #6
The Captain sat between Caroline and me. While the congregation recited the Twenty-third Psalm—"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; for thou art with me …" Caroline reached over and took his hand as though he were a small child in need of guidance and protection. He reached up with his free hand and wiped his eyes. And, sitting closer to him than I had in months, I realized with a sudden coldness how very old he was and felt the tears start in my own eyes. (14.28)
So, maybe Louise isn't as coldhearted as she thinks. She's not really sad that Auntie Braxton has died, but thinking that the Captain might go one day is just too much for her. Death is tough stuff.