What quotation indicates that the author’s purpose is to justify actions in an intolerable situation? “we tried to reason with her, more to calm ourselves, to catch our breath, than to soothe her.” “but it was all in vain.” “it was as though madness had infected all of us.” “a few young men forced her to sit down, then bound and gagged her.”

“It was as though madness had infected all of us.”

Explanation:

A mad person cannot be held responsible for his or her actions, so by saying that 'madness had infected' all of them, the author is trying to justify their binding and gagging Mrs. Schachter because the situation was really intolearble for all of the prisoners.  

"Our terror could no longer be contained. Our nerves had reached a breaking point. Our very skin was aching. It was as though madness had infected all of us. We gave up."  

faulty parallelism is a construction in which two or more parts of a sentence are equivalent in meaning but not grammatically similar in form.

the correct version of this faulty parallelism in the sentence is:

the hikers knew that the hike was six miles, that it usually required the entire day, and it would not be wise to start after 10: 00 a.m.

the problem is the last sentence, the first two have a basic subject+verb+object structure.

so, to give a proper balance to the structure, or better said, to give a parallel structure, we must write a basic s+v+o structure in all three sentences:

the hikers knew that the hike was six miles, that it usually required the entire day, and it would not be wise to start after 10: 00 a.m.

based on the biblical principle philippians 4: 13 "i can do everything through christ who strengthens me." i agree that it is through him that we are given the strength to cope with every situation.

and based on the biblical principle proverbs 16: 32 "better to get angry slowly than to be a hero. better to be even-tempered than to capture a city."   i agree with the author of the passage to the extent that the nobility of heart demonstrates the strength of a person. those who are contemptuous, get angry easily and show their anger toward others are really weak, but those who are noble and make sure to not hurt other people and their feelings are strong people.