"The veil, the black stockings, the walls. I couldn't shrug them away. I was suffocating."
Samya wears heaving, black clothing as a symbol of her married status. The weight of the clothes is an outward symbol of the oppressive force of her marriage. She feels completely trapped by her situation.
"Thursday was a visiting day. My brother Antoun always came to see me; he was a man with a sense of duty . . . Antoun and I would look at each other; we had nothing to say."
In school, Samya recalls drifting farther and farther away from her family. After childhood she becomes less important to her male family members. Although Antoun visits her faithfully, he doesn't have any interest in her ideas or experiences. He appears out of habit, because it is honorable and correct to visit his sister.
"He started to complain that the horse had bitten him. He didn't understand what sudden rage had come over the animal. Such a docile horse!"
When Samya witnesses a man die one day from the carriage while Boutros is away, she identifies herself with the dying man. Just as he was helpless to save himself from the horse, she feels powerless against her husband. The unpredictable fury of the horse when frightened mirrors Samya's own silently growing rage. This quotation foreshadows Samya's violent rebellion.
"The wife of a Nazer does not hang around the village. It is no place for a respectable woman!"
A "Nazer" is like a mayor, a leader in his community. Because her husband holds such a prestigious position, Samya has higher expectations of behavior placed upon her. She has even fewer options than the other women.
