How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
The buzzards laid their eggs in season and lovingly fed their young. Earth had nourished them bountifully for centuries. She would nourish them for centuries more…. (11.94)
And don't think this'll be the last time you see these winged garbage disposals either. The buzzards are a super important symbol in A Canticle (visit our "Symbols, Imagery and Allegory" section, and you'll see). They help connect the theme of time with the theme of mortality, as they appear repeatedly at sites of death.
Quote #5
It had happened once before, so the Venerable Boedullus had asserted in his De Vestigiis Antecessarum Civitatum. (14.3)
This book's title—Google translated it as "In the Footsteps of the Ancestor Civilization"— rings true with one of the most famous verses from Ecclesiastes: "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun" (1:9). Miller's thematic inspiration is Biblical, yo.
Quote #6
"Tell me, what do you think of him?"
"I haven't seen him. But I suppose he will be a pain. A birth-pain, perhaps, but a pain."
"Birth-pain? You really believe we're going to have a new Renaissance, as some say?"
"Hmmm-hnn." (16.74-77)
Even the characters in the story seem to realize that time is cyclic. It makes us wonder why they are so surprised when time goes all Of Mice and Men on them. Also note the connection to change and pain. That is, even a blessed change, like childbirth, comes with its share of pain.