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Sticky Washington
Kate Wetherall is a cheerful, energetic, 12-year-old member of the Mysterious Benedict Society. She fails Mr. Benedict’s written exams, but her resourcefulness and kindness to Rhonda and Number Two during the tests secure her a place on Mr. Benedict’s team. Kate is an orphan; her mother died when she was a baby, and her father left when she was a toddler. Kate has therefore grown up on her own, and she is desperate to prove that she can function without help from anyone. She is capable of amazing feats of strength and acrobatics, which she picked up during her years with a traveling circus, and she has a natural gift for measuring exact distances by sight. She carries every survival tool she might need in a red bucket that she brings everywhere. Though she keeps up good spirits during the children’s adventures at Mr. Curtain’s Institute, she occasionally hints that her cheerfulness is an act to prevent her from seeming vulnerable. Her need to prove her self-reliance gets her into trouble when she is nearly caught on a reconnaissance mission that she insists on undertaking alone. She only comes to understand this in the climax, when she sacrifices herself to save Constance and realizes that she now needs her friends to save her. Kate is rescued by Milligan, who reveals himself to be her long-lost father. The two reunite, both happy to finally have a family again.
Kate Wetherall Quotes in The Mysterious Benedict Society
The The Mysterious Benedict Society quotes below are all either spoken by Kate Wetherall or refer to Kate Wetherall . 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 3
Quotes
“Do you suppose we’re going to meet anybody normal today?” Kate asked.
“I’m beginning to doubt it,” Reynie said.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10
Quotes
Exploring was what she did best, and Kate liked always to be doing what she did best. Not that she was a bad sport; in fact, she was a very good one, and she rarely complained. But Kate had spent all her life––ever since her father abandoned her, which affected her more than she cared to admit––trying to prove she didn’t need anyone’s help, and this was easiest to believe when she was doing what she was good at.
Chapter 17
Quotes
Reynie wasn’t surprised by his friends’ responses. He too had been wary of the notion when it occurred to him. But were they not secret agents? Was not their very presence on the island a deception? Kate and Sticky’s reaction was just an instinctive response, he thought; they would come around in a minute. Still, Reynie was troubled….Where was his powerful love of truth?...Was he perhaps not quite the truth-loving brave soul Mr. Benedict and everyone else thought him to be?
Chapter 22
Quotes
Reynie’s face fell. “It’s not funny, Kate.”
For a moment––a fleeting moment––Kate looked desperately sad. “Well, of course it’s not funny, Reynie Muldoon. But what do you want me to do? Cry?”
Chapter 30
Quotes
You shouldn’t let her go alone, Reynie thought. She ought to have help. But when he opened his mouth to argue, he found nothing would come out. A fog seemed to have rolled into his mind, and on top of that he felt bone-weary. He was tired, very tired, of always trying to do the right thing.
Chapter 31
Quotes
[Kate] had grand visions of sabotaging the Whisperer, destroying all its computers by herself. Ripping out cables, crushing components, stealing mysterious gizmos that could not be replaced. Not only would she be regarded as a hero, she could prove once and for all that she could do everything alone––that she needed no one’s help. But now she saw she could do no such thing. Not this time.
Chapter 35
Quotes
It has to be all four of us, but Constance can’t handle them. You can handle them, though. It will be rough, but you can handle them.
(Part of Kate believed this––a very important part, for Kate’s sense of invincibility was the main thing that had sustained her all her young life alone. But another part did not believe this––and it, too, was an important part, for unless you know about this part it is impossible to understand how brave a thing Kate was about to do.)
Chapter 39
Quotes
“Just a few minutes more, Number Two. Let them play. They are children, after all.”
And this was certainly true, if only for the moment.
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Kate Wetherall Quotes in The Mysterious Benedict Society
The The Mysterious Benedict Society quotes below are all either spoken by Kate Wetherall or refer to Kate Wetherall . 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 3
Quotes
“Do you suppose we’re going to meet anybody normal today?” Kate asked.
“I’m beginning to doubt it,” Reynie said.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10
Quotes
Exploring was what she did best, and Kate liked always to be doing what she did best. Not that she was a bad sport; in fact, she was a very good one, and she rarely complained. But Kate had spent all her life––ever since her father abandoned her, which affected her more than she cared to admit––trying to prove she didn’t need anyone’s help, and this was easiest to believe when she was doing what she was good at.
Chapter 17
Quotes
Reynie wasn’t surprised by his friends’ responses. He too had been wary of the notion when it occurred to him. But were they not secret agents? Was not their very presence on the island a deception? Kate and Sticky’s reaction was just an instinctive response, he thought; they would come around in a minute. Still, Reynie was troubled….Where was his powerful love of truth?...Was he perhaps not quite the truth-loving brave soul Mr. Benedict and everyone else thought him to be?
Chapter 22
Quotes
Reynie’s face fell. “It’s not funny, Kate.”
For a moment––a fleeting moment––Kate looked desperately sad. “Well, of course it’s not funny, Reynie Muldoon. But what do you want me to do? Cry?”
Chapter 30
Quotes
You shouldn’t let her go alone, Reynie thought. She ought to have help. But when he opened his mouth to argue, he found nothing would come out. A fog seemed to have rolled into his mind, and on top of that he felt bone-weary. He was tired, very tired, of always trying to do the right thing.
Chapter 31
Quotes
[Kate] had grand visions of sabotaging the Whisperer, destroying all its computers by herself. Ripping out cables, crushing components, stealing mysterious gizmos that could not be replaced. Not only would she be regarded as a hero, she could prove once and for all that she could do everything alone––that she needed no one’s help. But now she saw she could do no such thing. Not this time.
Chapter 35
Quotes
It has to be all four of us, but Constance can’t handle them. You can handle them, though. It will be rough, but you can handle them.
(Part of Kate believed this––a very important part, for Kate’s sense of invincibility was the main thing that had sustained her all her young life alone. But another part did not believe this––and it, too, was an important part, for unless you know about this part it is impossible to understand how brave a thing Kate was about to do.)
Chapter 39
Quotes
“Just a few minutes more, Number Two. Let them play. They are children, after all.”
And this was certainly true, if only for the moment.
