The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“Sacrifice one or sacrifice all. That is the way of the world. We couldn’t change it if we tried.” 

Describing why the Protectorate must sacrifice a baby to the Witch, a first-person narrator reveals the peoples’ uniform acceptance of the status quo and their own powerlessness. Parents passing down stories about the Witch with lessons like this allows the Council and Sister Ignatia to maintain control of the people for generations.

“‘The path to Truth is in the dreaming heart,’ the Poet tells us.” 

Glerk quotes the Poet when he agrees to maintain Xan’s fiction that Fyrian is a Simply Enormous Dragon. This quote shows Glerk’s sensitive and artistic nature, and it allows Glerk to bend the truth and let Fyrian continue imagining he is huge—perhaps someday it will be true. This quote also shows how Glerk sometimes follows Xan’s directions to lie despite his reservations.

“Human babies are only tiny for an instant—their growing up is as swift as the beat of a hummingbird’s wing.” 

For creatures as old as Glerk, Fyrian, and Xan, Luna’s babyhood is fleeting. The comparison to a hummingbird is an example of the pervasive bird symbolism in the novel: Birds are quick and hard to hold, like childhood. This observation also foreshadows Xan’s desire to keep Luna close and childlike as long as she can.