Quotes
“I love. The most reckless thing of all.”
In the society, there is love, but it is all pre-decided or arranged with a Match Banquet. In a Match Banquet, each person is randomly paired with the ideal partner. There is no true love if someone else choses who you love. True love is nearly forbidden. But while they were still inside the Society, Cassia and Ky found love in one another. This proved to be dangerous and it caused Ky to be sent to the Outer Provinces and be left to die. This quote explains that Ky understands how risky it is to love someone in the world that they are currently living in. He constantly defies the Society in order to love his perfect girl, Cassia.
"Eli," I say, and then the firing begins. And the screaming. "Run," I tell Eli. "Don't listen." I try not to hear any of it either - the screaming, the yelling, the dying."
In the Society, Aberrations are among the lowest in the classification of the Society. The Aberration status is usually acquired by committing an infraction. Aberrations are sent to The Outer Provinces by the Society. However, while pretending to be farmers in the eyes of the Enemy, the Aberrations are being left to die by the fire power of the Enemy. These "firings" happen almost every night. This quote demonstrates the horror that is faced nearly every night by these innocent people. People who are discarded from the world like trash.
“Forgetting lets you live without the pain for a moment but remembering hits hard.”
Throughout this book, Ky (one of the main characters) is reminded of his grim past, while he is once again living in the Outer Provinces and traveling through the Carving. When he was younger, his family's status was changed to Aberration and they were sent to The Outer Provinces. Everyone was killed by the Enemy in a firing, including his parents, but Ky survived. When he was taken into the Society he tried his best to keep his past out of his mind, but he could not forget; he could only remember. That's what hurt him most, the memory of his past filling his mind.
“The Society music plays around and over us, but our thoughts are our own.”
Music surrounds us in everyday life, and can influence what we think, say, and do. Cassia knows that the goal of the Society is to operate a perfect world, through controlling people. She doesn't want the Society to control any aspect of her life any longer. So, even though she feels the influence of the Society around her, she will not give in and have her thoughts altered.