How we cite our quotes:
Quote #7
“You know,” he said looking carefully away at the river, “once when I was a kid we went ashore at Jamaica, and in the marketplace there was a man with some birds for sale. They were sort of yellow-green with bright scarlet patches. I was bent on taking one home to my grandmother in Saybrook. But father explained it wasn’t meant to live up here, that the birds here would scold and peck at it. Funny thing, that morning when we left you here in Wethersfield – all the way back to the ship all I could think of was that bird.” (12.29)
Nat tells Kit the story of the tropical bird. Why does Kit remind Nat of the bird? Do you think Kit can ever really change her feathers?
Quote #8
“I think it was his way of breaking with Dr. Bulkeley,” explained Rachel. “He has tried so hard, poor boy, to reconcile Gersholm’s ideas with his own bringing up. Now it seems the doctor is going to publish a treatise in favor of Governor Andros and the new government, and John just could stomach it any longer.” (16.93)
Kit isn’t the only character in the novel trying to figure out the identity question. John Holbrook is a man who must reconcile his education with his values, his politics with his religion. Breaking from Dr. Bulkeley, John must become his own man with his own ideas.
Quote #9
The meals fell to Kit, and she did the best she could with them, measuring out the corn meal, stirring up the up the pudding, spooning it into a bag to boil, and cursing the clumsiness that she had never taken the pains to overcome. She built up the fire, heated kettles of water for the washing, so that Mercy might have fresh linen under her restless body. She fetched water, and strained a special gruel for Judith, and spread her uncle’s wet clothes to dry before the fire. At night she dozed off, exhausted, and woke with a start sure that something was left undone. (17.8)
When Mercy and Judith fall ill, Kit works hard to take over the family chores. She sees herself as part of the Wood family with responsibilities to care for those in it.