Dragonwings Family Quotes
How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I spoke [Mother's] name into it, and all of a sudden I heard your mother singing a lullaby to you as you gradually stopped crying. You must have just been born, for I as yet had had no news of your birth.
"You could speak to them," the Lord said.
"No," I said. I'm afraid that I began to cry. I don't want her to feel what I feel, listening to her but not being able to touch her. Better that she shouldn't know." (3.81-83)
Windrider's account of this portion of the Dragon King dream shows how being with his family has in fact always been part of his dream. His dream of being a dragon is interlaced with his dream of being reunited with Mother and Moon Shadow.
Quote #2
"Dragons," Father went on, "protect their own brood." (5.65)
From this quote we know that dragons do not only symbolize dreams and flight for Windrider; they also symbolize a sense of family. Father's yearning to be dragon is also a yearning to be with his family.
Quote #3
"Perhaps…" Miss Whitlaw tapped a finger against her lips for a moment. "Perhaps the truth of the dragon lies somewhere in between the American and the Chinese versions. He is neither all-bad nor all-good, neither all-destruction nor all-kind. He is a creature particularly in tune with Nature, and so, like Nature, he can be very, very kind or very, very terrible. If you love him, you will accept what he is. Otherwise he will destroy you." (6.165)
Miss Whitlaw uses the symbol of the dragon to subtly comfort Moon Shadow when Windrider is angry about his secret correspondence with the Wright brothers. Miss Whitlaw advises Moon Shadow to remember the dragon within his father and to love him whether he is kind or terrible.
Quote #4
Mother offered more advice, and added that Father had been lucky that the man he had killed had had no close kinsmen, for that sort of thing had led to feuds in the past. (8.61)
The Lees understand a sense of family loyalty when they act under the assumption that families will kill for their brethren.
Quote #5
"It's time I thought of myself," Father asserted.
Uncle was scandalized. "Supposing your father and mother had thought that? Or suppose their fathers and mothers had thought that before?"
"That's cheating." Father sagged in his chair and rested his hands on his knees.
"A superior man admits the truth," Uncle snapped. I could see Father was beat. (10.170-172)
Uncle Bright Star guilt trips Windrider with a sense of family duty when Windrider voices his wish to pursue flight separate from the Company. Windrider agrees with Uncle Bright Star that families would end with his kind of self-centered thinking.
Quote #6
"It's Mother who has to listen to [everyone in the village] laughing," I pointed out.
"I wish I could spare her that." Father chewed the end of the brush's wooden handle. "We have the easy part. All we have to do is fly. She has to live in the village." (11.14-15)
Moon Shadow and Father remind themselves and us readers that the family is not only suffering on the American front. We never hear of Mother's suffering.
Quote #7
Somehow we managed to send some money home too. Once a month, on a Sunday, I walked down into Oakland and rode the trolley to the ferry depot, where I would join a lot of other Tang men – houseboys and other dayworkers. From there, we would ride the ferryboat over to San Francisco. Father never went, because he did not want to waste any of his free time. (11.17)
Whereas Moon Shadow takes pains to send funds to his family in China, Windrider would consider the extra effort a distraction to his main dream of flying.
Quote #8
As we expected, Grandmother called Father a fool who was a disgrace to the family, both the living and the dead, and so on. I was surprised that the schoolmaster's brush had not burned up, but she again warned us to watch out for the water in our new demon home, so I suppose she had not totally turned her back on us. As also could be expected, Mother was patient and understanding, saying what a truly wonderful thing it was to meet the Dragon King. (11.21)
Grandmother throws some words of caution to Windrider, Uncle Bright Star-style, but both she and Mother express their unconditional support.
Quote #9
I wish more than ever that I could be with you right now, for your father has undertaken no small task; but since I cannot be there, you must love him doubly hard. You must give him not only your own support, but also try to give him mine as well. (11.27)
Mother expresses her love both for her son and her husband by requesting that Moon Shadow love Windrider, especially when the going gets tough.
Quote #10
I'm not going to build another Dragonwings. When I was up there on it, I found myself wishing you were up there, and your mother with you. And I realized I couldn't have the two of them together: my family and flying. And just as I saw the hill coming at me, I realized that my family meant more to me than flying. It's enough for me to know that I can fly. (12.129)
Ultimately, Windrider's vision for himself shifts so his family is the dragon side of him that he pursues, rather than the flying ability. He reminds us what Moon Shadow has been saying all along, that dragons are not merely creatures who fly, but have other admirable qualities too, like being protective of their families.