English ETA quotes

Replacing dependance with personal agency

8. “I don’t need to find the ring to tie me to Dad. I can do that myself.”

By the novel’s conclusion, October rejects the ring and chooses to sustain her relationship with Dad herself. The confident model verbs “I don’t need” and “I can” depict October’s movement and personal agency. Balen presents maturity as creating security within oneself while remaining emotionally connected to others.

Imagination losing protective power

2. “I can’t find the rest of the story.”

At this moment, October’s storytelling collapses because she isn’t able to shape her world into being safe. Through the negative modal “can’t,” Balen exposes her helplessness as imagination loses its protective power. More profoundly, maturation begins when October accepts that life cannot always be controlled, completed or rewritten.

Protection as emotional restriction

3. “Everything is far away from here and that’s exactly how I want it to stay.”

The absolutes “everything” and “exactly,” reveal that her confidence conceals fear, turning protection into restriction. October wants the outside world kept distant from her home. Balen suggests that growing up requires encountering uncertainty because complete safety can prevent change.

Finding a new form of belonging

4. “There’s a space here that I have been trying to find”

In this scene, October discovers a place at the Thames that answers the emptiness. ‘Space’ is used as symbolism to represent a new form of belonging rather than a replacement for the woods. As her identity develops, she learns that maturity means being able to contain both her old and new worlds.

Possessive understanding of connection

5. “She is beautiful and she’s my first real friend and I love her with a fierceness that catches me in my chest.”

Physically, the body imagery of love ‘catching’ in October’s chest makes her attachment feel overwhelming. Emotionally, the repetitive “and” conjunctions make her feelings rush, while “fierceness” connects her devotion with a fear of loss. At this early stage, October mistakes keeping Stig close for loving her, revealing her possessive understanding of connection.

Letting go as an act of care

6. “October, October, sometimes it’s a kindness to let something go even when you love it very much.”

In Dad’s advice, “October, October, sometimes it’s a kindness to let something go even when you love it very much.”, letting Stig go becomes an act of love rather than rejection. Dad uses a gentle tone and joins kindness and love with separation, challenging October’s belief that distance means abandonment. Balen therefore presents maturity as recognising that genuine love protects another’s freedom.

Desire to reverse change

7. “If I had the other ring I really would have the perfect story.”

October believes that the matching ring will complete both its history and her own. Yet the conditional “if” and idealised “perfect” place her happiness in an object. Within the bildungsroman, her search reflects a desire to reverse change and find security.

Shared woodland identity

1. “We live in the woods and we are wild.”

The inclusive pronoun “we” joins October and Dad within one shared woodland identity. Beneath, the declarative sentence reveals that October has not yet imagined herself as separate or self-reliant. Balen suggests that growing up means developing an independent identity without rejecting where one came from.