If your parent is deployed and you are that young, you spend the whole time wondering where they are and waiting for them to come home. As time passes and the absence is longer and longer, you become more and more concerned - but you don't really have the words to express your concern. There's only this continued absence.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the emotional struggle of children dealing with the absence of a deployed parent.
Suzanne Collins captures the profound impact of a parent's deployment on children, highlighting the sense of loss and anxiety that grows over time. As children wait for their parent's return, the extended absence fosters a deep concern that they often lack the tools to articulate, which can lead to feelings of isolation and distress.
In practice
Using this quote in a speech to raise awareness about the challenges faced by military families.
But Mockingjays were never a weapon," said Madge. "They’re just songbirds. Right?" "Yeah, I guess so,” I said, But it’s not true. A mockingbird is just a songbird. A mockingjay is a creature the capitol never intended to exist. They hadn’t counted on the highly controlled jabberjay having the brains to adapt to the wild, to thrive in a new form. They hadn’t anticipated its will to live.
Okay, listen to me, you're stronger than they are. You are. They just want a good show, that's all they want. You know how to hunt. Show them how good you are.
You're still trying to protect me. Real or not real," he whispers. "Real," I answer. "Because that's what you and I do, protect each other.
The ones I loved fly as birds in the open sky above me. Soaring, weaving, calling to me to join them. I want so badly to follow them, but the seawater saturates my wings, making it impossible to lift them. The ones I hated have taken to the water, horrible scaled things that tear my salty flesh with needle teeth. Biting again and again. Dragging me beneath the surface.
My time in the arena made me realize how I needed to stop punishing [my mother] for something she couldn't help, specifically the crushing depression she fell into after my father's death. Because sometimes things happen to people and they're not equipped to deal with them.
Fire is catching! And if we burn, you burn with us!
Any sane person would have left long ago. But I cannot. I have my sons.
Women without children are also the best of mothers,often, with the patience,interest, and saving grace that the constant relationship with children cannot always sustain. I come to crave our talk and our daughters gain precious aunts. Women who are not mothering their own children have the clarity and focus to see deeply into the character of children webbed by family. A child is fortuante who feels witnessed as a peron,outside relationships with parents by another adult.
It's as if, in the mother's eyes, her smile, her stroking touch, the child first reads the message:'You are there!'
Every one of our children will be brought into the ark, if we pray and work earnestly for them.
It's just really making sure I am doing the best job I can do as a dad. I do think that is my No. 1 job.
Our parents set the moral tone of the family. They expected more of some of us and less of others, but never less than they thought we were capable of.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.