The three epigraphs are quite interesting and mystifying to interpret. The first epigraph contains a quote from the Genesis, so it’s in turn a biblical reference to something. The contents of this epigraph tells us that that the woman, Rachel, preferred to gain children or else she would die. Largely, this was due to her jealousy over her sister. To make this even more drastic, she can’t have children so she tells her husband to fornicate with the maid, so she can take them in as her own. From this sort of explanation, it seems to me as some type of foreshadowing, which may involve one or all of these three things: children, adultery, and jealousy. I feel as if her desperation for a child seems to be a symbol that might show up later within the book, as well as jealousy and adultery, which in the epigraph came up from her inherent desperation for a child. I believe this might be referencing the Martha’s gossip or possibly the commander’s wife’s possible envy of the girl in red. The second epigraph, seems to state that under the strain of many useless thoughts, he hopelessly finds only one solution. This solution tends to show that their might be an action that a character may take that he/she begrudgingly makes to escape the desperation of hoping for success. I believe this references when the girl in red tries to tell herself not to think, that you would last longer by not thinking. This reason makes sense to me, as if you were to think and rationalize to yourself about depressing things, it would only progressively rationalize yourself into an even worse situation, causing you to fall deeper into despair. As for the third epigraph, I’m ultimately confused in. It states that in the desert, there isn’t a sign that tells you not to eat stones. I believe that there aren’t a lot of signs or stones inside the desert, so the result should be obvious not to. Maybe, it means that something obvious would happen? Possibly, such a sign is a mirage in the desert, hopelessly telling you to do stupid things in the story? What if the second epigraph ties in with the third one, that after constant hope for success, you begrudgingly end up with a solution. Although it might not be the best solution, in the case it ends up to be really dumb advice. Possibly, a character might end up doing something bad, after hoping for a good outcome.