The Ropemaker The Home Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

Thinking about it as their seashell boat whispered across the empty ocean, thinking about how she did whatever it was she did, she discovered in herself a need to find a place where it belonged. Not Woodbourne, to whose remembered image she had clung as she had fought her way into Talagh, and again when she had faced Silena. She couldn't cling to Woodbourne any longer. She had changed. Now she needed a new place, somewhere that would always be hers, which she could explore and learn to know, as she knew her way round Woodbourne, every cranny in the house and outbuildings, every yard of the fields and meadows. (14.13)

Tilja has finally recognized the extent of her maturation. Woodbourne, the image of her childhood, is no longer enough for her—she must find a home of her own, a place that's just hers, solely for Tilja the magician. She isn't clinging to her childhood anymore, instead recognizing the need for separation and a place of her own. 

Quote #8

But now, as she stood and looked out over the darkening Valley, she found she could put that aside as her whole being brimmed with happiness to be home. No, she could not stay here forever. Yes, everything could still go agonizingly wrong. But this was the place she belonged, at least for now, as a fox belongs in its lair. Home. (20.2)

Home. Tilja is finally home—and just being there allows her to put aside her fears for her father temporarily. She can appreciate the comfort of being in her childhood atmosphere for just a bit of time.

Quote #9

Home felt like a shoe that didn't quite fit, a shoe the right size and shape, but with odd little bumps and hardnesses that the foot isn't used to a shoe that needs wearing in. (20.19)

Once Tilja settles back into her chores at Woodbourne, it feels slightly odd to be doing so. She's been so many places and experienced so much that being back in one place, let alone her childhood home, is odd. She has to adjust to being home in the same way she had to adjust to being in the Empire and among strangers—though the latter was perhaps more shocking.