Fate and Free Will Quotes in Blood Red Road

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

Or maybe the truth is this. [...] An all his spells and chants was jest him bein so desperate fer rain that he'd try any old thing, no matter how crazy. (2.109)

After Lugh's kidnapping, Saba struggles to make sense of this eminently confusing series of events. On the one hand, she empathizes with Lugh's rational disposition, believing that there's no way Pa could have actually predicted what happened. But still...he did, didn't he?

Quote #5

If Pa couldn't read the stars, if the stars ain't got nuthin to say, how did he know all that?

How did he know? (2.123)

This is the one thing Saba can't explain: how did Pa know that there would be men coming for Lugh? No matter how much her rational mind wants to toss it aside as nonsense, she just can't shake this eerily accurate prediction.

Quote #6

That's where Willem an me fell out, she says. [...] He looked to the sky for answers. I look at what's in front of me, what's around me, what's inside. (3.106)

Mercy seems to disagree with Pa's fate-weaving ways. In addition, she gives us a little bit of backstory about how he got into it in the first place, showing it to be a relatively recent obsession in his life. What do you think led him to getting so obsessed with such an esoteric topic?