I feel like I've come out of this grown up, maybe because I live through the character vicariously and she grows up so much during the course of this story. ↗
One of the great attractions of patriotism - it fulfills our worst wishes. In the person of our nation we are able, vicariously, to bully and cheat. Bully and cheat, what's more, with a feeling that we are profoundly virtuous. ↗