Dead Man Walking Family Quotes

Journalists want to think Pat and Prejean had a romantic relationship, because journalists are awful. Prejean says no, he was in prison, you idiot, and we couldn't even touch each other; what is your damage? Or, okay, she doesn't say that, because she's a nun, and nuns are patient even with fools. What she does say instead is that she and Pat were like brother and sister, and that this relation of brother to sister is similar to the love Jesus said people should have for one another. Family love is compared to the love of Jesus—and that's the case throughout the book, where the compassion and pain families feel towards their loved ones is given a strong moral value.

Eddie calls Prejean "Sis" because she's a nun; people call her "Sister Helen." But he also calls her "Sis" because she's family. Part of Prejean's religious calling is to love everyone as a brother or sister—but in this case, it also means being a sibling in this particular family. That also means that with Pat's execution, she's lost a brother. Maybe that's part of why she identifies so strongly with the Harveys and their loss later on.

Talking to the Harveys about Faith's death freaks Prejean out, understandably enough. It makes her worry about her own loved ones. Family becomes not a source of comfort but a source of fear and potential pain. The book encourages you to love, but it also shows how loving makes you terribly vulnerable.