833 Reading Responses discussion

Write down your focus question at the top of your response.

Write your response as a SINGLE PARAGRAPH that contains:

• Claim statement: Provides the claim, the topic of the question, and important text information, such as the title, author, and genre of my text?
• Context: Provide background of what is happening in the text so my reader understands what I’m talking about? Did I say what was happening at the time of the quote/evidence?
• Textual Evidence: Find the most relevant piece of evidence that proves my claim and include the page number.
• Analysis: Explain how your quote supports your claim (consider including strategies such as contrast, cause and effect (explaining the importance of effect, "What is this quote really getting at?", etc).

Kevin Liang Reading Response 833


What is an important choice or action your character made?
In Cassandra Clare’s fiction novel City of Lost souls by Cassandra Clare, an important action my character made was Sebastian binding himself to Jace with Lilith’s binding rune. Sebastian, the antagonist, binds himself to Jace, the main protagonist, meaning that whatever damage is done to either of them, damage is reflection to the other. Jace is forced to follow whatever Sebastian does and says and can’t get himself out of the spell. On page 69 Alec says, “‘If Jace is possessed, the Clave will kill him themselves. We can’t tell them anything.”’ This moment is impactful because this is showing that Clary and her friends have a finite amount of options regarding how they can defeat the antagonist without hurting Jace. This is even more crucial because Clary and Jace are in a romantic relationship and she won’t do anything to put him in harm allowing Sebastian to take advantage of the playing field to defeat the Shadowhunters.

QUESTION: How do the secondary characters impact the protagonist?
In Ransom Rigg's fantasy/fiction novel, Hollow City (underlined title) the secondary characters, Addison and Emma, impact the protagonist, Jacob, by influencing his choices and helping him through tough situations using their abilities.
Right now in the story, the protagonist and the two main secondaries are facing problem in which all of their friends have been kidnapped and their lives may be in peril. One of the only ways to save them would be for the protagonist to use a very dangerous and impractical ability.
On page 213, it states "...Emma's confidence was what held everything together. It was the life raft."
This moment shows how the secondary character helps and impacts the protagonist. Her confidence is what makes the protagonist go along with otherwise dangerous plans. It makes him feel comfort in what little safety they have in their situation.

Question:What is an important choice or action your character made?
In Chris Lynch's realistic fiction novel, Vietnam Sharpshooter, Ivan decides go in guns blazing by himself in order to secure a city in Vietnam, because he feels that it is necessary for putting his life in danger in order to save the rest of his platoon. Ivan knows that one small mistake, he's dead and so is the operation. Ivan decides its necessary to go in guns blazing by himself to distract the Vietnamese troops. On page 116, it states, "I took my heavy artillery M-47 and went out. I knew that I was being watched. I started firing until I had no more ammo. The distraction was working as Lt. Syfer was already in position." This moment shows how important Ivan distracts ALL the Vietnamese troops or else he can die and so will the rest of his platoon. If Lt. Syfer wasn't in postion and Ivan had ran out of ammo, the operation would be blown.

Question: What Motivates you character?
In the book The Reason I Jumped the main character (The author) has autism and is trying to live a normal life. The author which is Naoki Higshida is a 13 year old boy when he wrote this book. In this book Naoki Higshida was asked many questions on how he lives his life and what he has done to help his autism.

In a page (I don't know I don't have the book anymore) he said "Life is a battle". This really motivates him because he wants to show everyone that he is just as normal as other people. Throughout the book he faces many challagnes like speaking/communicating with others. He also shows the way he thinks about things like numbers. According the the autor he says that "People with autism really gets a kick out of numbers". The author really lives by the quote "Life is a battle" because he has to fight though situatuons that might not be normal to him like speaking. He had to use a comupter and learn to communicate that way because speaking was to hard for him.

What is an important choice or action your character made?
In Danielle Paige’s fantasy sequel, to Dorothy must die , The Wicked Will Rise, an important choice Amy decided to do was to not answer Ozma’s question leading her to questioning herself mentally. Amy came to Oz the way Dorothy did, from a tornado but this time Dorothy is evil and Amy has to go to the Rainbow Citadel to ask for help. While walking through the fog of doubt with Ozma, she hears her friend’s voices in her head. “ ‘who are you?’ Ozma had asked before we’d entered the fog. I had ignored the question, but now i knew she had been trying to help me. It didn't matter what Nox thought of me,or didn’t think of me. All that mattered was that i knew who i was.” page 163. Ignoring the question caused Amy to doubt herself because rather than ignoring the question, if she actually answered the question, she would not have that many doubts about herself even though they were going through the fog of doubt which was bound to bring along doubt but less. What this quote is really getting at is that Amy relies on her friend’s opinions way too much and that she needs to have self confidence in herself.

Michelle Ye
Class 833

Question: Why does the author include these significant moments to make them important?




The Child Called "It" is a biography by Dave Pelzer, one of the author's choice on significant moments was how David's father decided to become a bystander. The protagonist, David, a nine year old boy, was being abused by his mother in all kinds of tortures for years. At the beginning, David's father would try to argue with David's mother in order to help David, but in the end, David's mother always gets what she wants in her way. One time, David's mother had gone too far, she stabbed David with a knife by accident, he was deeply wounded, he ran into the living room and told his father about the accident, hoping his hero would take him to the hospital, however, David's dad did not show any concern towards his son. On page 90, David's father told David, "'You better go back in there and do the dishes! Go on now, before we make her more upset!' I stood before Father in total shock. All my respect for Father was gone. The savior I had imagined for so long was a phony." The author includes this significant moment because it demonstrates how David's father has changed from protecting David at first in the story to given up on helping his son because he couldn't handle David's mother controlling him all the time. This is a big character development, and the protagonist shows sadness and pain as he saw his father betrayed him while siding with his mother. David believed his father that one day he'll stand up for him and take care of him, he lost his hope after seeing his father betraying him like nothing happened when David got stabbed by his mother. As a result, David felt hopeless in this family, he felt as if no one in the family loved him.

Question:What is an important choice or action your character made?
In Ned Vizzini realistic fiction novel, it's kind of a funny story, an important choice Craig made is when he decided to stop taking Zoloft, which is the medicine he is suppose to take to help stop his depression. This caused Craig's depression to worsen, which caused him to think about killing himself "Okay, so how do you feel right now? I want to kill myself." page 148. After he stopped taking Zoloft Craig became to start thinking about how he might fail school, how he is a failure, and how his friend Aaron is better than him. Not taking Zoloft causes Craig to continuously to doubt himself over and over again. This causes Craig to think about killing himself by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge.

Question: How do the secondary characters impact the protagonist?
In Cynthia Voigts Fiction novel, "Homecoming," there are many secondary characters that impact the protagonist James similarly. They each get in the way of James and there role is to be an Obstacle. The protagonist, James, tries to complete his mission but yet comes along many people that slow him down. He needs to act very cautiously because there are many people watching him and are out to get him. They make him feel hopeless and he feels he should just give up. Secondary characters such as Dicey, who is supposed to help him throughout his mission, acts in an immature and stubborn way, "I don't need any help!" This is a very significant moment brought by Dicey because James has a time limit and Dicey stalls time doing this. Dicey not only doesn't know how to do the mission but acts like he does and this really does bring James down. He puts both himself and James and serious trouble.

Question: What is an important choice or action your character made?
In R.J. Palacio’s realistic fiction novel Wonder, an important choice that the protagonist, August Pullman, made was to attend middle school. August was born with a rare medical face disorder called “mandibulofacial dysostosis.” This caused him to be home-schooled and babied by his family since he has many surgeries. But now, August is ready to enter fifth grade at Beecher Prep and prove to his classmates that even though he has an extraordinary face, he’s just an ordinary kid. On page 306, it stated, “To me, though, I'm just me. An ordinary kid. But hey, if they want to give me a medal for being me, that's okay. I'll take it. I didn't destroy a Death Star or anything like that, but I did just get through the fifth grade. And that's not easy, even if you're not me.” This shows that going to middle school was an important choice that August made because it shows all the troubles he been through. He wanted to be normal but because of his deformed face, he stuck out and got bullied by his peers. Although he suffered during the the school year, he also grew up because of it, and that’s what made the choice significant.

Question: Identify significant moments in the text? Why are they important?

In the fantasy world of the Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan, finding out and deciphering Loki’s plans is a significant moment in the book because it contributes to solving the conflict of Thor’s missing hammer. Magus Chases, the main protagonist, has to accomplish his most difficult task just after defeating a ferocious god. He was assigned to find and retrieve Thor’s hammer after Loki and the earth giants have stolen it. The hammer is critical for Thor’s enemies to start war between the nine worlds. On page 347, the giant Utgard-Loki (no relation to the Loki above) explained, “Well, it’s simple, effective, and relatively foolproof. It doesn’t get you the hammer back, but as I said, I don’t care about that. My main concern is keeping Loki in captivity. If he gets free, he starts Ragnarok right now, and I, for one, am not ready.” This moment is significant because this is where Magnus and his friends realize there are more at stake if they don’t get back Thor’s hammer. If the hammer doesn’t return to its rightful owner then Loki is freed from captivity and immediately starts Ragnarok, which is the war that everyone is preparing for. There are greater catastrophes that can happen if their assignment wasn’t successful. As a result, it shows that Magnus has the chance to stop this after he gained new information on Loki’s plans.

Question: What is one important choice or action your character made?

In Gaby Rodriguez's memoir, "The Pregnancy Project," an important choice Gaby makes is to not get pregnant at an early age. Gaby's family all had kids at an early age, she was often told that she would become a teen mom also. On page 60 it says "you're gonna get pregnant in high school just like Jessica. Jessica is closest to my age... Jessica says "you're not perfect. you're gonna make the same mistakes I did." I may not be perfect , but i'm nothing like you, I would retort." This shows that people doubted Gaby and thought she would become a teen mom just like her sisters, but Gaby chooses that she doesn't want to get pregnant at early age so she says she not going to make the same mistakes as in getting pregnant. Because her siblings were teen parents she knew how it felt to become one, therefore she chooses to be different from her siblings and not make the same mistakes that they made.

Question: Identify significant moments in the text? Why are they important?

In the novel The Shade Of The Moon By Susan Beth Pfeffer, a significant moment was when Jon was keeping things he doesn't want other people to know to himself. He is keeping so many secrets to himself that when he wants to tell someone, he tells Carlos. He really likes Carlos and also believes that he can be trusted. The novel stated, “Bad times made for big secrets.” which shows that Jon was really stressed out about the big secrets. He had multiple secrets. For example, he asked Sarah to be his friend even thought Zachary and Tyler didn't want that. That proved how he was not loyal towards Zachary. Another secret was that Jon didn't want to tell Miranda how much he hated her for killing Julie. He wanted her to admit to him that she killed Julie. He kept so many secrets that it was reveal to multiple people. His actions were not smart.

Question: What is one important choice or action you character made?


In P.C and Kristin Cast's Vampire Protagonist novel, "Revealed," the main character Zoey had already made so many hard decisions as in who to trust in her life and what she is going to do because her every single step in life will affect those around her. She is the first fledgling High Priestess and she has a lot of boy problems in her life. Before she had to chose to let go of Heath, her human consort, her love in order to get back to reality. He meant so much to her and she knew him for a very very long time. She says to Stark, “‘Nine,’ I said. It made me feel miserable and helpless, but my gaze wouldn’t stay on Stark’s face.” Nine, the age Zoey met the love of her life, now she is in high school with the love of her life dead. Her choice of leaving him in the Otherworld made her so depressed, but she had Stark, her guardian be there for her and kind of take his place even though the thought of Heath still lingers in her heart. This boy problem stresses her out so much and half the time she tries to force it out of her mind.

“How do the secondary characters impact the protagonist?”


In the fantasy book Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, Jacob’s grandpa, the secondary character affects him by leaving clues about his death which then leads Jacob into a whole new world where he learns more about himself, and his peculiarity. Jacob’s grandpa has always seemed to be a bit of a burden to his family as his age started to take over his mentality, or at least that’s what Jacob’s parents would think. Jacob had a special connection with his grandfather as the stories his grandpa would tell him about this mysterious land where ghosts and children with superpowers existed. They were just stories at first, until Jacob actually got to see what the stories were like in real life. And so the connection severely affected him once his grandpa died. His grandpa had told him to give a letter to a bird in the loop on the other side of the old man’s grave. This made no sense to Jacob until he ended up in Wales, where he has actually found his second home. With Miss Peregrine. On page 247, Jacob says “I’d always known I was strange. I never dreamed I was peculiar. But if I could see things almost no one else could, it explained why Ricky hadn’t seen anything in the woods the night my grandfather was killed… I wasn’t crazy or seeing things or having a stress reaction; the panicky feeling when I saw them was my gift.” This moment of realization is important as it shows how if his grandfather hadn’t played a role in Jacob’s life, then Jacob wouldn’t have ever learned about his gift of seeing things no one else could see. As a result, this not only gives him the answers as to why he felt that he was strange, but to embrace his gift and use it in the future. All those therapies would no longer be needed, because he found out his gift, all thanks to his grandfather and his peculiar gift.

Question: What is an important choice or action your character made?
In Scott Westerfield’s fiction novel “Uglies”, this story is about Tally Youngblood, a girl who has waited for so long just to be pretty. In Tally’s world, everyone is “ugly” until they turn 16. Then they get surgery to make them look pretty. Tally’s best friend Peris, turns into a pretty before her and tells Tally to turn pretty and then join him in Prettyland. The summer before she turns 16, she meets this girl named Shay who thinks everything is not about being pretty and doesn’t want to be pretty unlike Tally. Shay shows her more about the outside world and makes Tally promise she doesn’t tell anyone. On her 16 birthday, she walks in to get her check up for her pretty surgery, the Specials, almost like the government, talks with her. They want Tally to lead them to the Smoke and Tally refuses but they said they won’t turn her pretty unless she helps. Tally finally agrees and sets of to the Smokes. After arriving to the Smokes, she finds out that the city is the one that’s unjustified and breaks a necklace that was suppose to track her and activate when she gets to the Smoke. This is a very important choice because this leads to a conflict.
“You activated the necklace, that’s how we found you and the Smokes. It automatically activates when it’s damaged.”
This shows that throwing the necklace was important because this caused the Specials to come to the Smokes and capture everyone. They also killed some uglies who refused like the Boss. This led to Tally having to rescue everyone because they people who have turned pretty, is brain damaged. The government put things in their minds to make them forget or grow up. Two ex-doctors for the city comes up with a cure but they don’t know if its 100% accurate. They need a willing subject so Tally decides to turn pretty and tests it out.

Question: What is an important choice or action your character made?

In Darren Shan’s horror fiction book Slawter, an important action my character made was Grubbs using his magic to trick Dervish from thinking that he has no magical powers. Grubbs Grady formerly known as Grubitsch Grady is a teenager that is still learning how to use his magical abilities. After defeating many demons, he has gained a lot of experience and is still exploring his capabilities of magic. On page 230, it says”I think I outfoxed Dervish, I think there is magic inside me, but it responded to my wishes and hid of deflected my uncle’s probe.” This choice Grubbs made was important because back then when Grubbs was first introduced to magic, Grubbs was only able to use it around demons or when he is in Danger. However, now that he has gained more knowledge he is able to use his magic without demons in the vicinity. This development may be useful to Grubbs in the future and gives a hint that Grubbs a true magician. Overall, this choice was important because it allowed Grubbs to have more control over his magical powers.

Question: How does the secondary character impact the protagonist?

In the realistic-fiction story Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick, secondary characters impact the protagonist; Steven, by forcing him to stop everything to tend and care for the secondary characters. Steven, the protagonist is an 8th grade student with a younger brother Jeffrey. Steven’s life quickly turns upside down when Jeffrey gets diagnosed with cancer. “How am I supposed to do schoolwork when Jeffrey’s in the hospital! Do you know how much time I’ve spent playing checkers with him?” Steven’s stuck in a midlife crisis and doesn’t know what to do. Like the good brother he is, he goes and tends his brother instead of focusing on his work. He forces most to all of his attention towards his brother and can’t focus on anything else. Steven is forced to ignore his life and live in Jeffrey’s.

Question: How has the character’s background impacted him/her?
In P.C. and Kristin Cast’s fantasy novel, “Marked,” Zoey’s background impacts her because it makes her feel unsafe, embarrassed, and annoyed when the topic is brought up. Zoey is a 15 year old girl that was marked, meaning that has to go to the house of night or else she’ll die. Someone who is marked is on the path to being a vampyre, unless they can’t survive the change and they die. But in the middle of this Zoey’s parents refuse to believe that Zoey has been marked, and believe that Zoey has turned evil. They won’t let Zoey give into evil and so they would rather let her die then let her go to the house of night. On page 25 of the book it says, “They weren’t going to let me leave. Not tonight, and maybe not ever, or at least not until I had to be hauled out by the paramedics.” This is the scene where Zoey’s parents are unwilling to let Zoey go. Her parents would rather let Zoey die then let her run off to the house of night and ruin their reputation as the perfect family. As a result Zoey gets annoyed and feels unsafe in her parents’ hands.

Question- how does the secondary character impact the protagonist?

In Richard Paul Evan's 6th book in the Micheal Vey series, a character named Gervaso made a extreamly large impact to the Electro clan. He made both a positive impact and a negative impact. First off, he made a positive impact by sacrificing himself to let the Electro clan escape with the ship. However, in doing so, he made a negative to Jack because he was like a second father to him. Sadly later, The main protagonist Micheal also sacrificed himself to help out his team. By becoming lightning itself, he destroyed most of the Elgen's fleet. With that, he impacted his team because he was the leader.

Why are the significant moments in the text important?

In Lauren Oliver's dystopian book, Delirium, the significant moments are important because they depict the main characters contradicting the laws against The Disease, Love. The Disease, know as the "amor deliria nervosa" in that world, and Love in this world, is considered a dangerous disease. Many people, including Lena the main character, believe(d) that this disease is a horrible thing. The scientists in Lena's world have discovered a so called "cure" for love, and yet Lena shows she doesn't believe that Love is such a bad thing after all. On the back of the book, Lena says, "They say that the cure for Love will make me happy and safe forever. And I've always believed them. Until now. Now everything has changed. Now, I'd rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years smothered by a lie." This significant quote is important because while others are happy with their worlds empty of love, Lena (and some others) believe that love is the best thing that happened to them. Lena went as extreme as only a sliver of one second and a hundred years. t's extreme because a sliver of a second is very small and a hundred years is a long time for someone to be alive. And Lena even had a reason to hate the Disease, her mother had killed herself because she didn't want to live in a world without love, and yet Lena still found reasons to love.

QUESTION: How do the secondary characters impact the protagonist?
In the Kim Culdertson fiction book The Possibility Of Now, Mara is impacted by her mothers actions. Mara felt the need to please her mother but Mara found the courage to tell her mother she was pressuring her. Mara goes to high school at Ranfield which is very competitive and cause Mara to have an "incident", she wanted a change of scenery so she went to Tahoe. Her mother doesn't completely understand why she is leaving, because she's always thought this was her daughter she dream. While Mara felt suffocated. "You're upset because I might not want the life you designed for me. But that's just it. Im not some renovation project."(219) Her mom makes her feel like she has to be perfection which influences her to express the way she feels. Rather than just letting herself push down all her emotion she tells her mom that this isn't the enviorment she wants to be in. Tahoe made her come to the realization that education isn't everything and instead of just letting her life revolve around it and maybe causing her to have another "incident" she will confront her mother.

Question: What is an important choice or action your character made?
In Jennifer Brown's realistic fiction novel The Hate List, an important action that my main character, Valerie Leftman, made was to easily forgive Nick Levil, the guy who shot his own classmates, no matter what obstacles come in between them. Before Nick's big scene, Valerie and Nick were pretty intimate and even after Nicks death of him shooting himself, she made it clear that she still had feelings for him. She still believed that Nick was innocent for what he did and doubted everyone that saw him as a murderer. Nick and Val were in high school and as their friendship began to grow, Nick was always there for Val; right by her side. One a former classmate, Christy Bruter, was "accidently" bullying Val on the bus, Nick immediately went and mistreated her. "'Got her,' Nick said, looking down at her too. he was holding a gun and his hand was shaking. 'Got her,' he repeated ... But no way could you convince me that he was a monster." Valerie chooses to easily forgive Nick for his actions because they've have created a very close bond that nothing or no one can break apart. Valerie thinks that no one really knows Nick, like how Valerie's Mom doesn't know Val's Dad. Everyone can think that they are a perfect family but in reality, her parents seem to always bicker at each other because of many issues including Valerie and her brother.

How does the secondary character impact the protagonist?

In Paul Volpani's realistic fiction novel Black and White, Eddie affects Marcus by being a bad influence because he changes Marcus' life in a negative way by letting him take the blame for something he didn't do. Marcus is a black kid who had to deal with struggles his entire life, while Eddie is a white kid whose parents are rich and doesn't have many struggles. They both play on the same team and decided to rob people together for money, Eddie then shoots a person while robbing him. Eddie lets Marcus take the blame for shooting the person. On page 54 it says, "Maybe I was the worst friend in the whole world, getting myself into a school while Marcus was in handcuffs. But I threw up my arms and walked away from her." This quote is significant because it represents what Eddie is doing while Marcus is off to jail for a crime he didn't commit. Marcus is not guilty, but he's not innocent either. Marcus did rob people, but he did not shoot that man. Eddie is letting Marcus pay for what he has done and Eddie should not have done that because his relationship with Marcus will change negatively.

Identify important moments in the text. Why are they important?

In the realistic fiction novel Faceless by Alyssa Sheinmel, an important moment in the book happened when the protagonist Maisie chooses to go running when there was going to be a thunderstorm because that causes her to have to choose a face transplant which makes her feel depressed throughout the book. Maisie got into a terrible accident when she went running one day. The accident had left her half faceless, so a face transplant was needed to "repair" her face. But the face transplant and accident had altered her way of life. She could no longer run track and the medications make her sleepy in school. On page 147, we see Maisie reflecting on her old life, " I can't remember what it felt like to have energy. How did I ever get straight A's, and run track, and shop with Serena, and kiss my boyfriend all in the course of a singe day?" Maisie had chosen to go running that day. If she hadn't went running, she wouldn't have been struck by lightning that left her half faceless. And if she hadn't been left half faceless, a face transplant wouldn't be needed. And if she didn't need a face transplant, she wouldn't be needing to take those medications that make her fall asleep in class and she would still be able to run track and be a straight A student. Her life wouldn't have changed at all if she had just looked at the weather forecast before she went running or turned back around after she felt the first drops of rain.

Question How does the secondary character impact the protagonist?
In the book Persepolis 2 a really important moment in this book is when Maraje decides to marry Reza this is important because it shows her how she has to live life because when she when Austria in the first book she decide to. In the book it said” I never thought I would marry Reza but I did and my dad was supportive”. This is really important because it shows Marjre how she has to live life not like she did in Austria. This is important but not to spoil the first book but she lives loosely in Austria she makes the wrong friends and speaks here mind about everything. She also lives life off of what she did in Austria and marrying Reza was a wake up call. Her dad impacts her by letting her marry Reza which she takes roughly and doesn’t enjoy it.

Question: How does the secondary character impact the protagonist?
In the book, Wonder by John Green, a secondary character was Julian and he would bully a new transferred kid, the protagonist, Auggie. Auggie didn't look like everybody else, he was different, and because of that he feels low about himself. Now, there are even kids calling him names and making fun of him. On page 73, it states "I wish everyday could be halloween. We could all wear masks all the time. Then we could walk around and get know each other before we go to see what we looked under the mask." Everyone judged Auggie for the way he looks, and Auggie wants to meet people before they see how each other looked like. Everyone made fun of him but doesn't knows his story.

Question: How does the secondary character impact the protagonist?
In the book Runemarks by Joannes Harris, Loki, an Aesir god, goes on an adventure with the main character Maddy (Modi). He goes with Maddie to rescue her dad, Thor.But along the way, they get the Whisperer which corrupted Loki's mind to inflict pain to himself everytime the Whisperer speaks telepathically to Loki.I don't have the book anymore and I forgot about the number page, but this is all I can remember. There really isn't any quotes from this but Loki is trying to save Maddy's life from danger. Loki in definitely trying to protect Maddy from harm from the prophecy on his behalf since he was mentioned in the prophecy.

Question: What is the purpose of the secondary characters?

In Judy Blume's romance novel, "Forever," the purpose of the secondary characters is to provide the main character with courage and support. In the novel, there are 2 people, Michael and Katherine and they are in love. They each want to express their love to each other thoughtfully and so they need advice from other characters. "The best thing about Erica ---- you never have to worry about her getting along with anyone." This is shown on page 31. Erica is a great demonstration to Michael and Katherine to help them gain the courage to love each other. Erica in this quote symbolizes hope and courage between Michael and Katherine's relationship.