How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I wanted to cry for my kitten, but I could not do that if anyone else was there and watching me. I wanted to mourn. I wanted to bury my friend at the bottom of the garden, past the green-grass fairy ring, into the rhododendron bush cave, back past the heap of grass cuttings, where nobody ever went but me. (1.22)
Part of life is learning how to cope with death. (That's right—we're going deep.) The mourning process is unique to everyone, but it's crucial to understand because until you learn what you need to do to deal with death it will be something that haunts you. So what the little boy is expressing here is an extremely mature instinct—to recognize the need and method of mourning is something most people only develop with time and experience. (And some people never figure it out.)
Quote #2
"That's the trouble with living things. Don't last very long. Kittens one day, old cats the next. And then just memories. And the memories fade and blend and smudge together…" (4.98)
Thanks, Lettie, for injecting some sunshine into the kid's day. He's trying to talk about missing his little kitten and you're waxing poetic about the limits of mortality. Nice.
Quote #3
I was certain that I would die, then. I did not want to die. My parents had told me that I would not really die, not the real me: that nobody really died, when they died; that my kitten and the opal miner had just taken new bodies and would be back again, soon enough. I did not know if this was true or not. I knew only that I was used to being me, and I liked my books and my grandparents and Lettie Hempstock, and that death would take all these things from me. (11.28)
The boy's way of looking at death is pretty simple, but in a refreshing way. He knows what his parents have told him about what happens, and he doesn't know whether or not to believe them, but he also knows that he's not ready to find out. He's happy being alive, thankyouverymuch.