The Shipping News

The Shipping News

by

Annie Proulx

Bunny Quoyle Character Analysis

Bunny Quoyle is the older of Petal and Quoyle’s two daughters. She is just six years old when her mother tries to sell her and her sister Sunshine to Bruce Cudd and then dies, and the family moves to Newfoundland soon after. Physically, Bunny is large and gangly, like her father and her great-aunt Agnis Hamm. She’s wild and brave and doesn’t always think before she acts. When thwarted, she’s prone to physical outbursts directed against her sister and even adults, although it’s clear that this is more from lack of proper discipline than anything else. As she settles into Newfoundland life, she calms down. She is intensely loyal to the people she loves. She stands up for Herry Prowse when he’s treated poorly by a teacher at school. She also struggles to process the immense trauma she experienced before the move to Newfoundland, which manifests in her fear of a mysterious white dog she sees around the house. Eventually, Bunny heals from her trauma as she learns the truth about death, and when Wavey gifts her a white husky puppy to raise.

Bunny Quoyle Quotes in The Shipping News

The The Shipping News quotes below are all either spoken by Bunny Quoyle or refer to Bunny Quoyle . 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:
Love and Family Theme Icon
).
Chapter 15: The Upholstery Shop Quotes

“Yes of course I remember. […] There was another white dog adventure couple weeks ago. You know that little white stone I had on my garden rock? If you squinted at it it looked like a dog’s head? She come pounding on the door yelling her head off. I thought something terrible’d happened. Couldn’t get her to stop yelling and tell me what was the matter. At last she holds out her hand. There’s a tiny cut on one finger, tiny, about a quarter of an inch long. One drop of blood. I put a bandage on it and she calmed down. Wouldn’t say how she got the cut. But a couple days later she says to be that she threw away ‘the dog-face stone’ and it bit her. She says it was a dog bite on her finger.”

The aunt laughed to show it wasn’t anything to have a fit about.

Related Characters: Agnis Hamm (speaker), Quoyle , Bunny Quoyle , Wavey Prowse , Nolan Quoyle
Related Symbols: House, White Dog
Page Number: 133
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18: Lobster Pie Quotes

Quoyle made them sit side by side in the boat. They gripped the gunwales. The boat buzzed over the water. “Go fast, Dad,” yelled Sunshine. But Bunny looked at the foaming bow wave. There, in the snarl of froth, was a dog’s white face, glistering eyes and bubbled mouth. The wave surged and the dog rose with it; Bunny gripped the seat and howled. Quoyle threw the motor into neutral.

The boat wallowed in the water, no headway, slap of waves.

“I saw a dog in the water,” sobbed Bunny.

“There is no dog in the water,” said Quoyle. “Just air bubbles and foam and a little girl’s imagination. You know Bunny, that there cannot be a dog that lives in the water.”

[…]

“Well, it looked like a dog. The white dog, Dad. He’s mad at me. He wants to bite me. And make my blood drip out.”

Related Characters: Quoyle (speaker), Bunny Quoyle (speaker), Sunshine Quoyle (speaker)
Related Symbols: White Dog
Page Number: 150
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20: Gaze Island Quotes

“Quoyle’s Point got quite a few known stinkers and rocks. There’s the Tea Buns, a whole plateful of little scrapers half a fathom under the water, off to the north of the Comb. Right out the end of the point there’s the Komatik-Dog. You com in on it just right It looks for all the world like a big sled dog settin’ on the water, his head up, looking around. They used to say he was waiting for a wreck, that’d he’d come to lief and swim out and swallows up the poor drowning people.”

Bunny, thought Quoyle, never let her see that one.

Related Characters: Billy Pretty (speaker), Quoyle , Bunny Quoyle
Related Symbols: White Dog
Page Number: 161
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24: Berry Picking  Quotes

His aroused senses imbued the far scene with enormous importance. The small figures against the vast rock with the sea beyond. All the complex wires of life were striped out and he could see the structure of life. Nothing but rock and sea, the tiny figures of humans and animals against them for a brief time.

The sharpness of his gaze pierced the past. He saw generations like migrating birds, the bay flecked with ghost sails, the deserted settlements vigorous again, and in the abyss nets spangled with scales. Saw the Quoyles rinsed of evil by the passage of time. He imagined the aunt buried and gone, himself old, Wavey stooped with age, his daughters in faraway lives, Herry still delighted by wooden dogs and colored threads, a grizzled Herry who would sleep in a north room at the top of the house or in the little room under the stairs.

Related Characters: Quoyle , Agnis Hamm , Bunny Quoyle , Sunshine Quoyle, Wavey Prowse , Herry Prowse
Page Number: 196
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 38: The Sled Dog Driver’s Dream  Quotes

Quoyle let himself be dragged through the company, eyes catching Wavey’s eyes, catching Wavey’s smile, oh, aimed only at him, and upstairs to Bunny’s room. On the stairs an image came to him. Was love then like a bag of assorted sweets passed around from which one might choose more than once? Some might sting the tongue, some invoke night perfume. Some had centers as bitter as gall, some blended honey and poison, some were quickly swallowed. And among the common bull’s-eyes and peppermints, a few rare ones; one or two with deadly needles at the heart, another that brought calm and gentle pleasure. Were his fingers closing on that one?

Related Characters: Quoyle , Bunny Quoyle , Sunshine Quoyle, Petal Bear , Wavey Prowse , Guy Quoyle , Dick Quoyle
Page Number: 315
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 39: Shining Hubcaps  Quotes

Well, said Quoyle, they were children. Children should be protected from knowledge of death. And what about Bunny’s nightmares? Might get worse.

“But, m’dear, if they don’t know what death is how can they understand the deep part of life? The seasons and nature and creation—”

He didn’t want her to get going toward God and religion. As she sometimes did.

“Maybe,” said Wavey, “she has those nightmares because she’s afraid if she sleeps she won’t wake up—like Petal and Warren and her grandparents. Besides, if you look at the departed, you’ll never be troubled by the memory. It’s well-known.”

And so Quoyle agreed. And promised not to say that Jack was sleeping. And he would come along and get them all in the station wagon. In about fifteen minutes.

Related Characters: Quoyle (speaker), Wavey Prowse (speaker), Bunny Quoyle , Petal Bear , Jack Buggit , Billy Pretty , William Ankle, Guy Quoyle , Jesson Buggit, Herold Prowse
Page Number: 331-332
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Shipping News PDF

Bunny Quoyle Quotes in The Shipping News

The The Shipping News quotes below are all either spoken by Bunny Quoyle or refer to Bunny Quoyle . 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:
Love and Family Theme Icon
).
Chapter 15: The Upholstery Shop Quotes

“Yes of course I remember. […] There was another white dog adventure couple weeks ago. You know that little white stone I had on my garden rock? If you squinted at it it looked like a dog’s head? She come pounding on the door yelling her head off. I thought something terrible’d happened. Couldn’t get her to stop yelling and tell me what was the matter. At last she holds out her hand. There’s a tiny cut on one finger, tiny, about a quarter of an inch long. One drop of blood. I put a bandage on it and she calmed down. Wouldn’t say how she got the cut. But a couple days later she says to be that she threw away ‘the dog-face stone’ and it bit her. She says it was a dog bite on her finger.”

The aunt laughed to show it wasn’t anything to have a fit about.

Related Characters: Agnis Hamm (speaker), Quoyle , Bunny Quoyle , Wavey Prowse , Nolan Quoyle
Related Symbols: House, White Dog
Page Number: 133
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18: Lobster Pie Quotes

Quoyle made them sit side by side in the boat. They gripped the gunwales. The boat buzzed over the water. “Go fast, Dad,” yelled Sunshine. But Bunny looked at the foaming bow wave. There, in the snarl of froth, was a dog’s white face, glistering eyes and bubbled mouth. The wave surged and the dog rose with it; Bunny gripped the seat and howled. Quoyle threw the motor into neutral.

The boat wallowed in the water, no headway, slap of waves.

“I saw a dog in the water,” sobbed Bunny.

“There is no dog in the water,” said Quoyle. “Just air bubbles and foam and a little girl’s imagination. You know Bunny, that there cannot be a dog that lives in the water.”

[…]

“Well, it looked like a dog. The white dog, Dad. He’s mad at me. He wants to bite me. And make my blood drip out.”

Related Characters: Quoyle (speaker), Bunny Quoyle (speaker), Sunshine Quoyle (speaker)
Related Symbols: White Dog
Page Number: 150
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20: Gaze Island Quotes

“Quoyle’s Point got quite a few known stinkers and rocks. There’s the Tea Buns, a whole plateful of little scrapers half a fathom under the water, off to the north of the Comb. Right out the end of the point there’s the Komatik-Dog. You com in on it just right It looks for all the world like a big sled dog settin’ on the water, his head up, looking around. They used to say he was waiting for a wreck, that’d he’d come to lief and swim out and swallows up the poor drowning people.”

Bunny, thought Quoyle, never let her see that one.

Related Characters: Billy Pretty (speaker), Quoyle , Bunny Quoyle
Related Symbols: White Dog
Page Number: 161
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24: Berry Picking  Quotes

His aroused senses imbued the far scene with enormous importance. The small figures against the vast rock with the sea beyond. All the complex wires of life were striped out and he could see the structure of life. Nothing but rock and sea, the tiny figures of humans and animals against them for a brief time.

The sharpness of his gaze pierced the past. He saw generations like migrating birds, the bay flecked with ghost sails, the deserted settlements vigorous again, and in the abyss nets spangled with scales. Saw the Quoyles rinsed of evil by the passage of time. He imagined the aunt buried and gone, himself old, Wavey stooped with age, his daughters in faraway lives, Herry still delighted by wooden dogs and colored threads, a grizzled Herry who would sleep in a north room at the top of the house or in the little room under the stairs.

Related Characters: Quoyle , Agnis Hamm , Bunny Quoyle , Sunshine Quoyle, Wavey Prowse , Herry Prowse
Page Number: 196
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 38: The Sled Dog Driver’s Dream  Quotes

Quoyle let himself be dragged through the company, eyes catching Wavey’s eyes, catching Wavey’s smile, oh, aimed only at him, and upstairs to Bunny’s room. On the stairs an image came to him. Was love then like a bag of assorted sweets passed around from which one might choose more than once? Some might sting the tongue, some invoke night perfume. Some had centers as bitter as gall, some blended honey and poison, some were quickly swallowed. And among the common bull’s-eyes and peppermints, a few rare ones; one or two with deadly needles at the heart, another that brought calm and gentle pleasure. Were his fingers closing on that one?

Related Characters: Quoyle , Bunny Quoyle , Sunshine Quoyle, Petal Bear , Wavey Prowse , Guy Quoyle , Dick Quoyle
Page Number: 315
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 39: Shining Hubcaps  Quotes

Well, said Quoyle, they were children. Children should be protected from knowledge of death. And what about Bunny’s nightmares? Might get worse.

“But, m’dear, if they don’t know what death is how can they understand the deep part of life? The seasons and nature and creation—”

He didn’t want her to get going toward God and religion. As she sometimes did.

“Maybe,” said Wavey, “she has those nightmares because she’s afraid if she sleeps she won’t wake up—like Petal and Warren and her grandparents. Besides, if you look at the departed, you’ll never be troubled by the memory. It’s well-known.”

And so Quoyle agreed. And promised not to say that Jack was sleeping. And he would come along and get them all in the station wagon. In about fifteen minutes.

Related Characters: Quoyle (speaker), Wavey Prowse (speaker), Bunny Quoyle , Petal Bear , Jack Buggit , Billy Pretty , William Ankle, Guy Quoyle , Jesson Buggit, Herold Prowse
Page Number: 331-332
Explanation and Analysis: