How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"She told the Bishop that if the Pope declared her parents to be venerable, it would be the same as the Church saying that her parents hated her. The petition for canonization of her parents was proof that Lusitania despised her." (1.47)
Novinha is defined throughout the novel by her opposition to the community of Lusitania. Here, she argues that if her parents are saints, they would answer her prayers and come back to her. If they choose not to, they must not care for her, or in other words, they care more for the community than they do for her. She loves her parents, and the community cares for her parents, but she sees these loves as mutually exclusive. The success of the community is at her expense.
Quote #2
"Every person is defined by the communities she belongs to and the ones she doesn't belong to…a person who really believes she doesn't belong to any community at all invariably kills herself, either by killing her body or by giving up her identity and going mad." (1.137)
Many stories, and many science-fiction stories, define self against community; heroes are often cowboys, lone rebels defying the rules (think Han Solo.) In Speaker for the Dead though, self is defined by community. Novinha's refusal of community messes everybody up (and think what happens to Miro when he climbs the fence to escape his community.)
Quote #3
I'm not the same person, really, from book to book, because each world changes who I am, even as I write down the story of the world. And this world most of all.
This is Valentine thinking about how community changes her. You'd think that since she's a rambling traveler who belongs to nowhere, she'd be outside community, but instead she's saying different communities make her different people. And of course she's actually settling on Trondheim and having kids and a family. Happy endings in Speaker for the Dead aren't so much romantic love or victory as they are getting a home and a community and a mortgage and a faster than light ship in the garage.