They had defied the Government once, with Luke. That had taken all the defiance they had in them. Maybe more.
Luke's parents have given up the woods around their house at the order of the Government, which plans to build a new housing complex in the area. Luke is devastated by this change because it means he cannot go outside anymore. However, Luke's parents were unable to deny the Government this request because they already defied the law when they had Luke, despite the fact that government regulations require that families only have two children. This quote also demonstrates that Luke's parents are generally rule-abiding people who fear their Government.
The first tree shudder and fall, far off in the distance. Then he heard his mother call out the kitchen window: “Luke! Inside. Now.” He had never disobeyed the order to hide. Even as a toddler, barely able to walk in the backyard’s tall grass, he had somehow understood the fear in his mother’s voice. But on this day, the day they began taking the woods away, he hesitated. He took one extra breath of the fresh air, scented with clover and honeysuckle and—coming from far away—plain smoke
Right before the Government workers cut down the forest around Luke's house, Luke steps outside to enjoy one last moment in nature. It isn't yet clear in the book why Luke needs to come inside or why his mother is so frightened, but this will quickly become apparent. This quote sets the scene for the rest of the book and the series of losses and limitations that Luke's family will incur.
What would happen if anyone saw him. Death? Death was what happened to the runt pigs who got stepped on by their stronger brothers and sisters. Death was a fly that stopped buzzing when the swatter hit it.
Throughout his short life, Luke has always obeyed his parents when they told him that he should hide. He needs to do this in order to avoid detection because he is the third child in a family that is only allowed to have two children. Luke is unclear about the consequences if he is indeed found - would he die like the young pigs on his family's farm? This quote also demonstrates the heartlessness of a Government that would murder children in order to preserve its rules.
Luke pictured himself as a baby, left in a cardboard box by the side of a road somewhere, the way Dad said people used to do with kittens, back when people were allowed to have pets.
Luke wonders about what his parents might have done with him if they hadn't had the courage to raise him as their own. He compares himself to an abandoned animal, a puppy left on the side of the road when its owners decide they can no longer care for it, expressing his feelings of loneliness and abandonment. This quotation also establishes that the world in which Luke and his family live is one in which people can no longer have pets, which sets up the reader to learn more about the difficult economic and political situation.
"Do you want to hide all your life, or do you want to change history?”
Jen is trying to convince the Shadow Children she has met through online forums (and, in Luke's case, in real life) to come to the protest that she plans to stage in front of the presidents' house. Jen believes that if she gets enough Shadow Children together, the army won't be able to harm them and their actions will force the Government to change the law. Luke is too frightened to do this, believing that such a bold action is too much of a risk. Jen tries to persuade him by viewing this as a logical next step out of the darkness of his family's home. She sets up a dichotomy between hiding in his family's home and living freely like a normal child.
“You’ve got to come, Luke, or you’ll hate yourself the rest of your life. When you don’t have to hide anymore, even years from now, there’ll always be some small part of you whispering, ‘I don’t deserve this. I didn’t fight for it. I’m not worth it.’ And you are, Luke, you are. You’re smart and funny and nice, and you should be living life, instead of being buried alive in that old house of yours—”
Jen continues to try to persuade Luke to join her rally on behalf of the Shadow Children. She addresses his growing frustration with his need to hide, and she emphasizes his positive characteristics, which Luke often overlooks within himself. This quote demonstrates how much Jen has grown to care about him, and how much Luke has grown as a person: he used to hide and obey his parents' orders, but now he questions them and looks for a way out.
"It's people like you who change history. People like me--we just let things happen to us."
When Jen tries to convince Luke to attend the protest that she is planning, he replies with this quote. Luke comes from a much poorer and less privileged family than Jen's: his parents are farmers while hers are government officials. Jen has access to technology and has the ability to move in public secretly, while Luke must stay locked up inside his house. Luke's parents (and Luke himself) have no faith in their ability to affect political or social change - rather, they just hope to move about their lives without Government interference.
At the end of the book, Luke will become aware that he can, in fact, effect change, and he will accept the offer that Jen's father makes him of a fake ID. He leaves his family and becomes determined to use his newfound freedom to seek ways to better the lives of Shadow Children.
"Our Government is totalitarian, and totalitarian governments never like truth."
Jen's father says this to Luke when Luke meets him after Jen's death. Jen's father argues that the Population Law is really about control, and the Government will never give it up because they want to maintain control over people. Neither the pro-Population-Law sources nor the anti-Population-Law sources are entirely correct since they are both infused with bias. Indeed, it becomes difficult to parse out what the truth really is, since the Government deliberate tries to cover up the truth in order to maintain its hold on the people.
"The Government justifies keeping everyone else in poverty because people seem to work the hardest when they're right on the edge of survival."
Jen's father points out to Luke the peculiarity of the country's situation: no one loses their farms to foreclosure because they cannot pay, but no one is able to live comfortably either. Jen's father argues that this is a deliberate move on the part of the Government, which wants to encourage people to work as hard as they can. Jen's father presents a middle ground between Luke's parents' view of an omnipotent and all-powerful government, and Jen's perspective that the Government is foolish and inept. Jen's father believes that the Government is calculating but also indifferent to most aspects of its citizen's lives.
"I'm doing this for you, too, Jen," he whispered, too softly for Jen's dad or the bug to hear over the car's hum. "Someday when we're all free, all the third children, I'll tell everyone about you. They'll erect statues to you, and name holidays after you...." It wasn't much, but it made him feel better. A little.
Near the end of the novel, Luke heads into his new life with a new identity as a Baron child. He is determined to use his new status to research ways to improve the lives of Shadow Children, and perhaps to repeal the law. He affirms that all of this is for his friend Jen, a brave person who taught him to believe in himself and the worth of other Shadow Children.
