How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph)
Quote #1
When the wind was in the north you could hear them, the horses and the breath of the horses and the horses' hooves that were shod in rawhide and the rattle of lances and the constant drag of the travois poles in the sand like the passing of some enormous serpent and the young boys naked on wild horses jaunty as circus riders and hazing wild horses before them and the dogs trotting with their tongues aloll and foot-slaves following half naked and sorely burdened and above all the low chant of their traveling song which the riders sang as they rode, nation and ghost of nation passing in a soft chorale across that mineral waste to darkness bearing lost to all history and all remembrance like a grail the sum of their secular and transitory and violent lives. (18)
The ghosts of the Comanches remain part of the land, in such impossible detail that they seem almost still present despite being "lost to all history." What sort of tone does this set for the opening of the novel? How can you relate the history of the Comanches to what happens?
Quote #2
The house was built in eighteen seventy-two. Seventy-seven years later his grandfather was still the first man to die in it. […] His grandfather was the oldest of eight boys and the only one to live past the age of twenty-five. They were drowned, shot, kicked by horses. They perished in fires. They seemed to fear only dying in bed. (23, 25)
There's a parallel between the Grady boys the Comanche nation with their short, violent lives. But there also seems to be an element of decision here, with the motivating fear of dying in bed. (In other words, not dying in bed is the so-called manly choice.)
Quote #3
Son, not everbody thinks that life on a cattle ranch in west Texas is the second best thing to dyin and goin to heaven. She dont want to live out there, that's all. If it was a payin proposition that'd be one thing. But it aint. (214)
What are the contrasting priorities revealed here in Lawyer Franklin's statement to John regarding his mother's decision to sell the ranch? Why might John want to keep the ranch, and why is his mother seemingly so dismissive—a feeling Franklin also seems to understand?