Fallen Chapter 4 Quotes
Fallen Chapter 4 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
(Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote 1
And then the deep groan of something heaving startled them both. Luce gasped as the top of the marble statue teetered over them, like a tree branch swaying in the breeze. For a second, it seemed to hover in the air.
Luce and Daniel stood staring at the angel. Both of them knew it was on its way down. The angel's head bowed slowly toward them, like it was praying—and then the whole statue picked up speed as it started hurtling down. (4.109-110)
Foreshadowing, folks. A stone angel almost kills Luce, just as, we later learn, the knowledge of Daniel's existence as a fallen angel had killed Luce in the past, over and over again. The fact that Daniel is right next to Luce to witness this whole thing—and also save her from the falling angel—is as romantic as it is ironic.
Quote 2
Her eyes just happened to fall on Daniel, who was working. He was very diligently using a wire brush to scrub some mold off the bronze inscription on a tomb. He'd even pushed up the sleeves of his sweater, and Luce could see his muscles straining as he went at it. She sighed, and—she couldn't help it—leaned her elbow against the stone angel to watch him.
He's always been such a hard worker.
Luce quickly shook her head. Where had that thought come from? She had no idea what it meant. And yet, she had been the one who'd thought it. (4.78-80)
In another instance when Luce's memory runs away from her, she has a thought about Daniel that, if she didn't already know him, she wouldn't know. The fact that this occurrence takes even Luce off guard indicates that she has no idea why she thought it. But we do, of course, and watching Luce go through the discovery on her own—with Daniel's help, sort of—is as interesting as it is heartbreaking.
Quote 3
"Um," she hedged, racking her brain for a sensible lie. Finding nothing. She racked her knuckles.
Daniel cupped his hand over hers. "I hate it when you do that." (4.90-91)
Although Daniel does his best to hide how much he knows about Luce, he sometimes lets his knowledge of her slip out without meaning to. It must be really hard for him to pretend that he doesn't know her, especially when he's known her for hundreds of years.
Quote 4
The delicate gates were all that divided the cemetery from the parking lot. Pretty remarkable for a school with so much barbed wire everywhere else. Luce ran her hand along the gates, racing the ornate floral pattern with her fingers. The gates must have dated back to the Civil War days Arriane was talking about, back when the cemetery was used the bury fallen soldiers. When the school attached to it was not a home for wayward psychos. When the whole place was a lot less overgrown and shadowy. (4.8)
Here's a moment of quiet, when Luce is waiting for her cemetery detention to begin. During this moment, Luce seems to experience a tiny bit of the historical, Gothic beauty of the campus, even if it only comes at the beginning of the morning, just as the sun rises. The fact that the school even has a cemetery on its campus makes it pretty unique, and that cemetery will play a larger role later.
Quote 5
Ahhh, Tuesday. Waffle day. For as long as Luce could remember, summer Tuesdays meant fresh coffee, brimming bowls of raspberries and whipped cream, and an unending stack of crispy golden brown waffles. Even this summer, when her parents were acting scared of her, waffle day was one thing she could count on.
[…]
Luce sniffled, slowly coming to her senses, then sniffed again with more gusto. No, there was no buttermilk batter, nothing but the vinegary smell of peeling paint. (4.1-2)
The fact that Luce's parents still kept the routine of waffle day—even though their family was in the midst of turmoil and they thought their daughter was a murderer—shows how loving and supportive they are with her. It also indicates how into routine her parents are: we get a hint at that Luce's upbringing has been pretty straight-laced. There's a big discrepancy between her welcoming and waffle-infused life at home and the vinegary horror of Sword & Cross.
Quote 6
"Detention buddies does not equal real life buddies."
Arriane looked back at Luce, who could feel her face falling, despite her bet efforts to appear unfazed.
"Look, Luce, I didn't mean…" she trailed off. "Okay, aside from the fact that you made me waste a good twenty minutes of my morning, I have no problem with you. In fact, I think you're sort of interesting. Kinda fresh. That said, I don't know what you were expecting in terms of mushy-gushy friendship here at Sword & Cross. But let me be the first to tell you, it just ain't that easy. People are here because they've got baggage. I'm talking curbside-check-in, pay-the-fine-cause-it's-over-fifty-pounds kind of baggage. Get it?" (4.59-61)
Here Arriane lays it all on the line for Luce, telling her straight out that Sword & Cross is not Dover Prep: making friends will not be as easy as swapping phone numbers and sitting together at lunch. People here are here for real reasons, not just supernatural reasons, and Luce has to understand that just as she doesn't necessarily want to open up to anyone, the other students might not want to open up to her. Communication is a two-way street, and all that. Except here is sometimes a no-way street.