American Pastoral Family Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #10

Three generations in raptures over America. […] And now with the fourth it has all come to nothing. The total vandalization of their world. (5.13)

Lou Levov's father came to the US in the 1890s. Merry is the fourth generation American child. She shatters the American dreams of her family.

Quote #11

When he overheard her telling the architect, Bill Orcutt, that she had always hated the house, the Swede was as stunned as if she were telling Orcutt she hated her husband. (5.24)

When the Swede sees Dawn and Orcutt having sex together in the kitchen, he does feel hated by Dawn. Do you think she hates him?

Quote #12

[…] he saw Meditation #27 go up on the very spot where once there had been a portrait of Merry that he'd loved […] (7.150)

A chilling moment for the theme of family. Merry's photograph is replaced by one of Orcutt's paintings of nothing. It seems really harsh, but grief makes people act in desperate ways.