The Name of This Book Is Secret

“Instead, everyone was always reminding her [Cass] about the boy who cried wolf. Naturally, they took that story to mean the boy shouldn’t have cried wolf when there weren’t any. But Cass knew the true moral of the story: that the boy was right, there really were wolves around, and they’d get you in the end if you didn’t watch out. Better to cry wolf over and over than to never cry wolf at all.”

This quote characterizes Cass as a survivalist and foreshadows her motivations and ideology throughout the novel. The allusion to “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” reframes a classic cautionary tale as a story in which the boy is misunderstood or otherwise dismissed by the people in his life, which mirrors how Cass feels about many of the adults in her life and how she feels she is perceived by others.

“Gloria pronounced these words [quirky and offbeat] as if they were slightly distasteful, but Cass, not knowing precisely what they meant, thought they sounded just grand. She decided if she ever bought a house she would want to buy one just like the magician’s.”

This quote demonstrates Cass’s early identification with the magician and, by extension, the magician’s world. It indicates and foreshadows Cass’s belonging to that world, because she understands it on a personal level and rejects the shallow values that govern her ordinary world.

“His hairstyle was not a fashion choice; it was a philosophical one. Max-Ernest cut every hair on his head the exact same length because he didn’t like to favor one hair over another. Hairs may be dead cells, he reasoned, but they’re still growing things, and each one deserves to be treated fairly.”

Max-Ernest’s hairstyle symbolizes the worldview he has developed as a result of the situation with his parents. Max-Ernest must treat both his parents exactly the same, as any difference could be perceived as him choosing one over the other. This informs how he interacts with other things in his life and characterizes Max-Ernest as someone who tries to achieve perfect harmony and balance between disparate things, foreshadowing his future role as a mediator.