How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
This letter is not a baring of my heart. It is a baring of something, but not of my heart. (1.64)
Mrs. Curren seems to spend a lot of time thinking not just about what to write, but also why she writes in the first place. She seems to have a message to send her daughter, but even she isn't entirely sure of what she's trying to communicate.
Quote #5
Three years ago I had a burglary (you may remember, I wrote about it). (1.144)
That Mrs. Curren – she's always writing!
Quote #6
"These are private papers, private letters. They are my daughter's inheritance. They are all I can give her, all she will accept, coming from this country. I don't want them opened and read by anyone else."
Private papers. These papers, these words that either you read now or else will never read. Will they reach you? Have they reached you? Two ways of asking the same question, a question to which I will never know the answer, never. To me this letter will forever be words committed to the waves: a message in a bottle with the stamps of the Republic of South Africa on it, and your name. (1.167-168)
Mrs. Curren has no way of knowing whether her daughter will ever even read the words she's writing, and yet she writes anyway. Here, we also see how the act of writing this letter is a major point of focus in her relationship with Vercueil. She has no choice but to try and trust him to be her messenger.