Gross!

"But the story did not end there. If you believed the Greenies, Rat said, Mary Anne was still somewhere out there in the dark...She had crossed to the other side. She was part of the land. She was wearing her culottes, her pink sweater, and a necklace of human tongues. She was dangerous. She was ready for the kill." Page 110

I thought this passage, and really the whole chapter, was in a way symbolic. I think it symbolized the transformation that all young people involved in the war experienced, to an extent. I doubt they all ended up with tongue necklaces (eww! why tongues??), but they all changed drastically. They all began as young and naive individuals. However, by the end they were permanently changed. The change could be positive or negative. The writer simply chose to illustrate the insanity the war could cause. He gave the reader a negative example. Or at least, it's negative in my opinion. But who knows, tongue necklaces could be all the rage this year.