How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
The school was so gray and ugly and angular that I almost couldn't catch my breath, and all of a sudden it was as if the school were life itself, and it wasn't how life was supposed to look but did anyway. (3.5)
Agnes's perception of her school changes once Pierre Anthon says nothing matters, as if his dissatisfaction is infectious. His perceptions color hers, which is yet another example of how this girl is inauthentic.
Quote #5
Jon-Johan threw up his arms, and we imagined all the experts, the educators and psychologists who would come and observe us and talk to us and reason with us until eventually we would give in and again start pretending that things really did matter. Jon-Johan was right: It was a waste of time that would get us nowhere. (3.28)
Jon-Johan presumes that the only thing a psychologist can do is annoy you until you start pretending to see things their way just to shut them up. But if Pierre Anthon's dissatisfaction can evoke similar dissatisfaction in his peers, why couldn't someone else's satisfaction authentically do the same?
Quote #6
"It doesn't matter," she began. "Or rather, it matters a lot. But that's the whole idea, isn't it? Otherwise the heap of meaning has no meaning at all, and then Pierre Anthon will be right about nothing meaning anything." (7.28)
What do you think are the essential characteristics that give a thing meaning? No seriously—we're asking. Shmoop hasn't got a clue.