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Nonette is a patient at the mental hospital where Evelina works as a staff member. Though Nonette is initially rude and haughty to Evelina, the two young women form a friendship, which eventually turns sexual. Nonette (whom Evelina assumes is French) seems exotic and worldly to Evelina, especially because Nonette seems to feel none of Evelina’s anxiety around their shared queerness. When Nonette leaves the hospital, Evelina feels used, as if Nonette wanted Evelina to experiment with. Evelina figures that Nonette can then shake Evelina off and return to her normal life, which is made easy by money and whiteness.
Nonette Quotes in The Plague of Doves
The The Plague of Doves quotes below are all either spoken by Nonette or refer to Nonette. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
16. The Reptile Garden
Quotes
I do think of how I have grown up in the certainty of my parents’ love, and how that is a rare thing and how, given that they love me, my breakdown is my own fault and shameful. I think of how history works itself out in the living. The Buckendorfs, the other Wildstrands, the Peace family, all of these people whose backgrounds tangled in the hanging.
I think of all the men who hanged Corwin’s great-uncle Cuthbert, Asiginak, and Holy Track. I see Wildstrand’s strained whipsaw body, and Gostlin walk off slapping his hat on his thigh. Now that some of us have mixed in the spring of our existence both guilt and victim, there is no unraveling the rope.
[…] Sometimes doves seem to hover in this room. At night, when I can’t sleep, I hear the flutter of their wings.
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Nonette Quotes in The Plague of Doves
The The Plague of Doves quotes below are all either spoken by Nonette or refer to Nonette. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
16. The Reptile Garden
Quotes
I do think of how I have grown up in the certainty of my parents’ love, and how that is a rare thing and how, given that they love me, my breakdown is my own fault and shameful. I think of how history works itself out in the living. The Buckendorfs, the other Wildstrands, the Peace family, all of these people whose backgrounds tangled in the hanging.
I think of all the men who hanged Corwin’s great-uncle Cuthbert, Asiginak, and Holy Track. I see Wildstrand’s strained whipsaw body, and Gostlin walk off slapping his hat on his thigh. Now that some of us have mixed in the spring of our existence both guilt and victim, there is no unraveling the rope.
[…] Sometimes doves seem to hover in this room. At night, when I can’t sleep, I hear the flutter of their wings.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
