How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
She tried to count the days since she was first arrested, but her loneliness, the darkness, and her fear distorted her sense of time and space. (14.18).
One of the effects of imprisonment in the novel, and indeed probably one of its objectives, is to disorient the prisoner. Because it helps Alba to reorient herself in time, it makes sense that writing would serve as an effective countermeasure against this distortion.
Quote #11
The doghouse was a small, sealed cell like a dark, frozen, airless tomb. There were six of them altogether, constructed in an empty water tank especially for punishment. They were used for relatively short stretches of time, because no on could withstand them very long, at most a few days, before beginning to ramble – to lose the sense of things, the meaning of words, and the anxiety of passing time – or simply, beginning to die. (14.59)
Alba's imprisonment in the doghouse recalls the arrival of Barrabás at the del Valle home in the beginning of the novel. In this quote, the author's message is clear: imprisonment and isolation, which is separation from all communication and from time, equal death.