He took his hands from his coat pockets to wave to her, but then he could see that it was not his mother; it was a witch. The resemblance, however, remained, and part of him thought that with all he'd done and seen, he might have made his mother into this."
-- Narrator (1, "Eye of the Dogs" paragraph 2)

Importance: Here, the reader learns how corrupt the soldier and his life have become after the war. Instead of finding his mother on his return home, the soldier finds "a witch." To the soldier, the two look the same, and he realizes that "he might have made his mother into this" because of all the atrocities he saw and committed in war. Moreover, after this meeting with the witch, the soldier never makes it home to find out what became of his mother. He follows the witch's instructions to become rich. Thus, in this quote, the reader sees that the...