How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"Attention!" he announces, flicking a lock of dark hair from his eyes. "I want to give you some advice about today. If by some miracle your families do come to visit you..." He scans our faces and smirks. "...which I doubt, it is best not to seem too attached. That will make it easier for you, and easier for them. We also take the phrase 'faction before blood' very seriously here. Attachment to your family suggests you aren't entirely pleased with your faction, which would be shameful. Understand?" (15.4)
Surprise, surprise—Eric being a jerk. Seriously, how many times in this book does he "smirk" or smile cruelly? Does he have no normal facial expressions? But what really caught our eye about this quote was that "faction before blood" phrase. Why "blood" instead of "family"? Is it because your faction is supposed to become your family? Do the semantics matter here?
Quote #5
I run my fingers through my hair and smooth it into a bun. I check my clothes—am I covered up? My pants are tight and my collarbone is showing. They won't approve.
Who cares if they approve? I set my jaw. This is my faction now. These are the clothes my faction wears. I stop just before the hallway ends.
Clusters of families stand on the Pit floor, most of them Dauntless families with Dauntless initiates. They still look strange to me—a mother with a pierced eyebrow, a father with a tattooed arm, an initiate with purple hair, a wholesome family unit. I spot Drew and Molly standing alone at one end of the room and suppress a smile. At least their families didn't come. (15.13-5)
Yes, Drew and Molly's families don't show up. In fact, we don't get to meet the families of lots of the jerks and villains in the book. It's a rare moment where she has something in common with them—absent families.
Quote #6
Scrubbing the floor when no one else wanted to was something that my mother would have done. If I can't be with her, the least I can do is act like her sometimes. (17.3)
After spending several chapters defying her family and their influence on her, here Tris is, after doing something her mother would do because it makes her feel better. This is after Edward was stabbed in the eye, so it makes sense that she would want to return to the non-stabby ways of her family.