It was not me they stared at. I understood that these people did not see me. I was two dead men. I was a burning farm. I was a knife. I was blood.
-- Agnes (Chapter 2 paragraph Page 86)

Importance: Agnes reacts to the crowd that gathers to see her transferred from the prison. The curious are reacting to the crime not to the person.

They have strapped me to the saddle like a corpse being taken to the burial ground. In their eyes I am already a dead woman, destined for the grave.”“It is necessary to keep her bound like a lamb ripe for slaughter?
-- Margret (Chapter 2 paragraph Page 114)

Importance: Although Margret does want Agnes to stay with her family, she shows Agnes kindness when she insists that the woman be untied.

That dress was my last possession. There is nothing in the world I now own; even the heat my body gives out is taken away by the summer...
-- Agnes (Chapter 3 paragraph Page 183)