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Charlie Peaceful
Mrs. Peaceful is Tommo, Charlie, and Big Joe’s mother and Mr. Peaceful’s widow. She is a kind, loyal, and courageous woman who sets an excellent example to her family, and all of her children look up to her. She is not afraid to stand up to people if she feels they have wronged her children. Grandma Wolf, for instance, is terribly cruel to Big Joe, and Mrs. Peaceful has “blazing arguments” with her as a result. She also stands up for Charlie and Tommo against the Colonel. She is always true to her word, on one occasion promising the boys that she won’t let the Colonel beat them for poaching on his land, and indeed, somehow managing to dissuade the Colonel from his punishment. Her kindness is demonstrated when she later welcomes Molly into the Peaceful family after Molly’s mother and Molly’s father kick her out of the house upon learning that Charlie got her pregnant.
Tommo’s Mother / Mrs. Peaceful Quotes in Private Peaceful
The Private Peaceful quotes below are all either spoken by Tommo’s Mother / Mrs. Peaceful or refer to Tommo’s Mother / Mrs. Peaceful. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
A swallow swoops over our heads all through the prayers, all through the hymns, flitting from window to window, from the belfry to the altar, looking for some way out. And I know for certain it is Father trying to escape. I know it because he told us more than once that in his next life he’d like to be a bird, so he could fly free wherever he wanted.
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Chapter 12
Quotes
It is the moment. I have to do it now. It is my last chance. I tell him about how Father had died, about how it had happened, what I had done, how I should have told him years ago, but had never dared to. He smiles. “I always knew that, Tommo. So did Mother. You’d talk in your sleep. Always having nightmares, always keeping me awake about it, you were. All nonsense. Not your fault. It was the tree that killed Father, Tommo, not you.”
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Tommo’s Mother / Mrs. Peaceful Quotes in Private Peaceful
The Private Peaceful quotes below are all either spoken by Tommo’s Mother / Mrs. Peaceful or refer to Tommo’s Mother / Mrs. Peaceful. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
A swallow swoops over our heads all through the prayers, all through the hymns, flitting from window to window, from the belfry to the altar, looking for some way out. And I know for certain it is Father trying to escape. I know it because he told us more than once that in his next life he’d like to be a bird, so he could fly free wherever he wanted.
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Chapter 12
Quotes
It is the moment. I have to do it now. It is my last chance. I tell him about how Father had died, about how it had happened, what I had done, how I should have told him years ago, but had never dared to. He smiles. “I always knew that, Tommo. So did Mother. You’d talk in your sleep. Always having nightmares, always keeping me awake about it, you were. All nonsense. Not your fault. It was the tree that killed Father, Tommo, not you.”
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