How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Whenever Gross left home, there was always the chance of being recognized and denounced, but in an atmosphere of daily street executions and house searches, Antonina worried when she heard a rumor that Nazis had been combing through the apartment houses in Magdalena's neighborhood, at odd hours, raiding attics and basements to roust out hidden Jews. (18.30)
What we said earlier about freedom and safety being mutually exclusive applies here as well. Magdalena holds on to her freedom as long as she possibly can, but when it becomes too dangerous to live free, she goes into hiding. She would never fit in in the state of New Hampshire, whose motto is "Live Free or Die," not "Not Live Free or Hide."
Quote #8
All the Guests and friends in hiding had secret animal names, and Magdalena's was "Starling," in part because of Antonina's fondness for the bird, but also because she pictured her "flying from nest to nest" to avoid capture, as one melina after another became burnt. (19.4)
"Free as a Bird," which is a Beatles song, doesn't quite ring true here. Antonina is as free as a bird that is fluttering from one cage to another. She's more like the Smashing Pumpkins song about a "rat in a cage." Again, there's relative freedom in this novel, but true freedom doesn't come until after the war is over.
Quote #9
"Animals behave differently in the wild. We make captive ones lives on a schedule that's unnatural to them because it's easier for us to take care of them, and that disturbs their normal sleep rhythms." (22.17)
Being in captivity affects the humans just as much as it does animals. People and animals must both adapt themselves to a lifestyle very different from the one they're used to. Here, though, Jan is talking about a hamster. How in the world does a wild hamster behave? Do wild hamsters compete in their own version of the Olympics when no one is watching?