Why is the goat so stubborn? Does it know that at the end of the journey there is a noose that will haul it upside down in seconds and a knife that will slit its throat? And if it can’t know that, does it sense at least some kind of mute and awful darkness to be avoided at all costs? Is it lore among goats that when you are taken away by yourself with a rope around your neck, you will never return? Perhaps I’m expecting too much of the goat; the goat simply resists the man because it is the nature of goats to resist.
-- Pilgrim (Chapter 1 (“Magulu, May 1”) )

Importance: This quote offers readers early foreshadowing about Pilgrim's fate and future. She sees the goat and wonders if it senses its impending death. At a certain point in the novel, Pilgrim begins to understand that all of her recent actions have led...