How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Gregory said nothing more. Instead, he reached into his pocket and then held his napkin up to his face and sneezed into it, once, twice, three times.
"Bless you!" shouted Mig. "Bless you, bless you."
"Back to the world of light," Gregory whispered. And then he balled the napkin up and placed it on the tray. (32.22-24)
You wouldn't take Gregory at first to be the compassionate type, after being shut up in the terrible dungeons. This might be another lesson from the author about the dangers of judging people before you know them.
Quote #8
Do you know what it means to be empathetic?
It means that when you are being forcibly taken to a dungeon, when you have a large knife pointed at your back, when you are trying to be brave, you are able, still, to think for a moment of the person who is holding that knife.
You are able to think: "Oh, poor Mig, she wants to be a princess so badly and she thinks that this is the way. Poor, poor Mig. What must it be like to want something that desperately?" (38.8-9)
The author obviously thinks that empathy is the princess's finest quality. It's hard to be empathetic in the princess's dire situation, but she comes by it naturally.
Quote #9
But still, here are the words Despereaux Tilling spoke to his father. He said, "I forgive you, Pa."
And he said those words because he sensed that it was the only way to save his own heart, to stop it from breaking in two. Despereaux, reader, spoke those words to save himself. (40.23-24)
Despereaux decides that forgiving his father will allow him to move on instead of getting mired in resentment and revenge like Roscuro. This strikes us as a very complicated and sophisticated idea for a children's book—that forgiveness is as helpful to the forgiver as it is to the person who's forgiven.