How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph.Page)
Quote #7
He felt like he could fly up to the third floor, but instead he took the elevator. Once inside, as if it were some kind of Kryptonite chamber, he returned to his previous self, the power draining from him. (XXIV.22.207)
Alan has to battle a lot of demons as he tries to function on the job for Reliant. He's on an emotional rollercoaster most of the time: invincible one moment, completely devastated the next. His once-victorious sales career pushes up against the failures of the past ten years or so, making his mood uncertain and unstable. At this moment, he's having all the feels. The Alan of the past surges forward to take charge, but it's really the Alan of the present who has to deal.
Quote #8
The mood among the young people, at least for a moment or two, was something like despair. Alan had the feeling, looking at Brad's deflation, that this was among the bigger disappointments of his life. (XXV.14)
When King Abdullah snubs the folks at KAEC by not showing, it's almost too much for Alan and his team. The adrenaline has nowhere to go. But we can't help laughing a little bit at the young crew: this is the worst disappointment that they've ever had. Alan knows that they just need another ten or twenty years to learn better, but for now, the no-show of the King nearly crushes them all—at least for the moment.
Quote #9
Alan hadn't built the wall to the town's specifications, hadn't worked with a licensed contractor, and so the wall had to be destroyed. They made him pay a pair of men to jackhammer his wall, his garden, until it was rubble. They trampled his vegetables, everything ground into the soil. The plants were dead. (XXVI.196.253)
Alan's spontaneous wall-building episode shows us the kind of guy he really is—impulsive, optimistic, no foresight. He gets carried away with prospects without thinking too much of the practical consequences.
On the other hand, Eggers wants us to see the bureaucracy that stifles creativity and destroys honest and good things like gardens. Is there any reason for them to do this? Not really, and that's why the episode stays with Alan, who counts it as another small loss in his attempt to really build a legacy for himself.