How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
A voice in her ears, good-natured, chiding: Luciente as a fraction of her mind, as a voice of an alternate self, talking to her in the night. Perhaps she was mad. (12.126)
As the book goes along, Luciente often seems more like a voice than a real person—and here Connie explicitly wonders if Luciente is an alternate self or a kind of imaginary friend. But if Luciente is imaginary, how can she tell Connie which plants are safe to eat?
Quote #8
"They won something. I don't feel like f***ing anybody. Or loving anybody. I don't feel any love at all. I feel like a big block of ice." (14.113)
Skip's homosexuality is seen as an illness. Curing him involves making him unable to feel lust or love. They've cut out a bit of his brain, which seems like it leaves him more insane, not less. (This is confirmed when he finally succeeds in his suicide attempt.)
Quote #9
… she could pour some of the poison into the coffee. It was brown and oily. It would work well in coffee. For all the meanness he had laid on her all the years of her life, for Dolly, for Carmel. Her purse lay within reach. She could do it. (18.178)
Is Connie mentally ill when she contemplates killing Luis? Is it rational to want to kill him? If she did murder him, she could probably escape the house in the confusion, or at least make an attempt. You could see her violence as extreme or crazy, but she's in a pretty desperate situation; maybe it's sane to go a little insane when you're backed against the wall.