How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"I cannot do it, Will Henry."
He laughed humorlessly and added, "I cannot decide which it is, a triumph of will or its failure. Perhaps it is both. You see why I prefer science to morals, Will Henry. What is is. What might be only might be. They allowed him to lie in that bed unmoved until his own weight produced the infected sores into which the flies laid their eggs, and now that infection has reached his bones. He is doomed, Will Henry; there is no hope of recovery."
"Then why can't you… ?" I whispered.
"Because I do not trust my own motives. I do not know whose hands would hold the pillow, his… or mine." (6.277-780)
Ah ha—Dr. Warthrop is capable of easing someone into the afterlife when it's a clear-cut case of mercy, but in the case of Captain Varner the morality is a bit murky. After all, he's the only person (that Dr. Warthrop knows of at the time) who can testify to his father's participation in the plot to bring the Anthropophagi to New Jerusalem. So if he did kill him, he's not sure if it would it be mercy or murder in order to protect his family name. Tough call.
Quote #5
"Then exile your guilt and bury your grief. They are dead, and no amount of sorrow or regret will bring them back to you. I present you with a choice, Malachi Stinnet, the choice eventually faced by all: You may lie upon the shores of Babylon and weep, or you may take up arms against the foe! Your family was not beset by demons or felled by the wrath of a vengeful god. Your family was attacked and consumed by a species of predators that will attack again, as surely as the sun will set this day, and more will suffer the same fate as your family, unless you tell me, and tell me now, what you have seen." (8.139)
Good old Warthrop, being sensitive as always. In this instance his brand of tough love helps get what he needs—Malachi's testimony—but he also gives Malachi a sense of purpose to which he can cling throughout his terrible ordeal. He can choose to throw a colossal pity party for himself or he can take up arms and exact vengeance. And Malachi chooses vengeance like the semi-suicidal orphan Rambo that he is.
Quote #6
"I am his assistant," I said not without a touch of pride. "Like my father. After he… after the fire, the doctor took me in."
"He adopted you?"
"He took me in."
"Why did he do that? Why did he take you in?"
"Because there was no one else."
"No," he said. "That is not what I meant. Why did he choose to take you in?"
"I don't know," I said, a bit taken aback. The question had never occurred to me. "I never asked him. I suppose he felt it was the right thing to do."
"Because of your father's service?"
I nodded. "My father loved him." I cleared my throat. "He is a great man, Malachi. It is… " And now my father's oft-spoken words fell from my lips, "It is an honor to serve him." (9.78-86)
Malachi raises an interesting question, and it's kind of surprising that Will Henry has never pondered the same thing: Why did Dr. Warthrop choose to take him in? Was it allegiance to his dead father? Or was it his desperate need for an assistant, and the convenience of an impoverished orphan was too good to pass up? Or, as Will Henry wants to believe, was it just the right thing to do?