How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph.Page)
Quote #7
Again, he stepped outside his skin and doubted his sanity. It was one thing to wander the site. Another to make his way to the beach. But to take off his shoes, roll up his pants and wade in (XX.22.167)
This is a moment when Alan becomes the other to himself. He has more than one out-of-body experience in this work—perhaps because he's struggling to figure out his identity in a world that seems to have moved on without him. He finds himself doing and saying things that he would not normally do or say. Some of it is pretty cool (like taking off his shoes to wade into the Red Sea) and some of it, not so much (being dragged into, uh, stuff with Hanne). Either way, it's leading to a serious crisis of identity.
Quote #8
The man said nothing. They hadn't played this game. As Alan was trying to decide how to explain heads and tails, the other man grabbed the phone and left the room, bounding down the stairwell. (XXV.71.224)
This is a classic clash of cultures. Alan tries to resolve the question of cell phone ownership by flipping a coin—but that's just not a thing among the workers at KAEC. They can't be on board with a diplomatic tactic they've never seen before. And with the language barrier also at work, Alan finds himself at the center of a potentially scary situation.
If only he'd watched Star Trek enough to understand the Prime Directive: no interference in cultures you don't fully understand, in conflicts whose contexts you don't know.
Quote #9
Salem had been living there for a year, and had seen this family of five come and go, and had occasionally seen the middle-aged man, too. But not until then did he realize that the man was not some friend or uncle, but a slave brought with them from Malawi. (XXVI.77.238)
Sometimes when we encounter the other, we don't really see them for who they actually are. Yousef's friend Salem has this experience with the middle-aged man who just seemed to be tagging along with a family from his apartment building. But when Salem really pays attention, he awakens to a terrible reality.
His response? Move to a better neighborhood, where he doesn't have to live with such things. Salem has no hope of making real change for this man, so he tries to shield himself as best he can.