“If you know how to read, the World of Books is open to you, after all; and if you like to read, you'll read. If you don't, you'll forget whatever anybody makes you read, anyway.”
While having a meal after the burial of Auberon, the family was making small talk trying to fill Smoky in about their lives. Doc Drinkwater was talking about how they started their school but later the state demanded that they change to meet the state standards. He criticized the standards that the state was setting claiming that learning should not be forced. He emphasized the benefits of learning willingly rather than being forced to learn as one would not gain anything. He also encouraged all those who wanted to learn that the resources to learn were available for them to explore. He insisted that it is only those people who are eager to learn who reap the benefits of learning. There had to be an interest to learn otherwise it would not bear any fruits.
“But life is wakings-up, all unexpected, all surprising.”
The narrator lets us in on Sophie’s thoughts after the faeries stole Lilac, her daughter. Sophie was worried as to whether she will ever meet her daughter again and when that would be. The narrator was relating her situation to the life lived every day that offers no assurance of anything. He talked about the uncertainties of life that change within a short period and how things happen when least expect them to. He insinuated that with each new day comes its share of surprises, happiness, sadness, and richness. Perhaps, Sophie might wake up the next day, and behold, Lilac in her arms again. With life comes a lot of unpredictability and therefore there is no need to dwell on one day but to look forward to what the next day would offer.
“Once arrived in the City, he dispersed utterly and gratefully in it like a raindrop fallen into the sea.”
Smoky hails from a tough background where he felt like he never belonged. He finally found his kind, or rather was just happy to get away from where he never belonged. He had no connection with his family and when his father died it made it even worse. Finding an opportunity to leave all his past and his relatives and move to town was a relief for him. It gave him a chance to start afresh with people who knew nothing about him. He was convinced that the town would accept him more than his family ever did. He was elated by the chance to get away and embraced it, fully fitting in the world of the Drinkwaters.
“Well, do you do that consciously?" Daily Alice asked, only partly of Cloud. "Do what?" Cloud said. "Grow up? No. Well. In a sense. You see it's inevitable, or refuse to. You greet it or don't -- take it in trade, maybe, for all you're going to lose anyway. Or you can refuse, and have what you've got to lose snatched from you, and never take payment -- never see a trade is possible.”
Daily Alice was fussing over her life before she got married and had children. Nora was advising her that perhaps she could be grateful for her children and marriage to feel whole again. She talked about how life changes were predestined and that no one could ever escape them, but one could learn how to turn them into memorable moments. Nora warned her that life was going to take away her youthfulness either way, so she had better make the most of it.
