How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph.Page)
Quote #1
He had been among burqas before, but to see these shadows moving through the playground, following the children—it gave Alan a chill. Was it not something from a nightmare, to be chased by a flowing figure in black, hands outstretched? (IV.6.30)
There's something about the fully covered women that sparks fear in Alan's mind. He doesn't pinpoint cultural difference as the culprit here, but clearly, he's seeing the playground scene through Western eyes.
Quote #2
Charlie's body, when they pulled it from the lake, looked like debris. He was wearing a black windbreaker, and the first thing Alan thought was that it was a pile of leaves wrapped in a tarp. Only his hands were visibly human. (IV.58.35)
There are several moments in this work when people turn into something else, something less than human. It's a play on Alan's fear that the world—and even humans themselves—is becoming overly mechanized.
When Alan sees Charlie's body, he doesn't recognize it as human. One could argue that death turns us into something other than a person, but we're not here to philosophize. Perhaps the "objectification" of Charlie's corpse is a final way to show how thoroughly alienated Alan had become from his friend.
Quote #3
"But the bridges I did not see coming. By God, we're having other people make our bridges. And now you're in Saudi Arabia, selling a hologram to the pharaohs. That takes the cake!" (XII.66.87)
Alan's dad becomes the mouthpiece for the "average American" who feels the sting of the globalization of the economy. Ron Clay is from an era when actual things were made in the U.S., and strongly believes that all decline—moral or otherwise—is linked with the movement of manufacture to developing countries.
While Ron may have a point, his point-of-view and view of the world is overly simplistic (and just plain wrong—the pharaohs were in ancient Egypt, not Saudi Arabia). It leads him to demonize his son and further isolate him for his role in the changing economy.