How we cite our quotes: (Page)
Quote #1
It only took a couple of minutes—first they got sleepy, then a little dreamy looking, and if there was a last little panic at the end, it didn't matter because they couldn't talk anymore, and finally, before lights out, they looked pleasantly confused, like a cricket with its feelers pulled off. (16)
Jun Do thinks about how the 16-year-old in the infirmary at the military base will die when they drain his blood from him. It's a horrifying practice, but for those who expect to suffer worse fates at the hands of the state, this sounds like a pretty nice way to go. Like the experience with the autopilot, this method of handling citizens is meant to take away the fight and erase identity. Jun Do later reflects that placing the young boy's blood into the ice was the real killing of him, since that was when the life force that made him unique was finally quelled.
Quote #2
... when that was all blocked off, there was only the inside of him, and what he discovered was a little boy in there who was stupidly smiling, who had no idea what was happening to the man outside. And suddenly, the story was true, it had been beaten into him, and he began crying because the Second Mate had died and there was nothing he could do about it. (88)
Jun Do's pain training pays off during his first torture session. He's able to leave his physical body to take the punches while he retreats into himself for self-preservation. The process involves a change in perception for him, and not only of himself. He learns that there is a place inside him where lies become dramatic reality. He learns that he can convince himself of anything, and other people will go right along with him.
Quote #3
"When you're out of sight of shore," he said, "you could be anybody from anywhere. It's like you have no past. Out there, everything is spontaneous, every lick of water that kicks up, every bird that drops in from nowhere. Over the airwaves, people say things you'd never imagine." (108)
Jun Do speaks of the freeing nature of the ocean: the general lack of borders and oversight give him a sense of what it might be like to live a different life. He acknowledges that a lack of borders changes people and helps them to lose their inhibitions—or perhaps fear of prohibitions. It's the spontaneity factor that really hooks Jun Do. There's no inevitability when things can change on the spur of the moment.