How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I spoke [Mother's] name into it, and all of a sudden I heard your mother singing a lullaby to you as you gradually stopped crying. You must have just been born, for I as yet had had no news of your birth.
"You could speak to them," the Lord said.
"No," I said. I'm afraid that I began to cry. I don't want her to feel what I feel, listening to her but not being able to touch her. Better that she shouldn't know." (3.81-83)
Windrider's account of this portion of the Dragon King dream shows how being with his family has in fact always been part of his dream. His dream of being a dragon is interlaced with his dream of being reunited with Mother and Moon Shadow.
Quote #2
"Dragons," Father went on, "protect their own brood." (5.65)
From this quote we know that dragons do not only symbolize dreams and flight for Windrider; they also symbolize a sense of family. Father's yearning to be dragon is also a yearning to be with his family.
Quote #3
"Perhaps…" Miss Whitlaw tapped a finger against her lips for a moment. "Perhaps the truth of the dragon lies somewhere in between the American and the Chinese versions. He is neither all-bad nor all-good, neither all-destruction nor all-kind. He is a creature particularly in tune with Nature, and so, like Nature, he can be very, very kind or very, very terrible. If you love him, you will accept what he is. Otherwise he will destroy you." (6.165)
Miss Whitlaw uses the symbol of the dragon to subtly comfort Moon Shadow when Windrider is angry about his secret correspondence with the Wright brothers. Miss Whitlaw advises Moon Shadow to remember the dragon within his father and to love him whether he is kind or terrible.