How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
During the week in September 1949 leading up to the Miss America Pageant, when she called Newark every night from the Dennis Hotel […], what radiated from herself was sheer delight in being herself. (5.7)
Is this Dawn's sheer delight in American pageantry, or the Swede's? When she's suicidal and hospitalized after Merry's depression, Dawn tells the Swede that the Miss America Pageant was the worst experience of her life… and not just because she didn't win. He thinks she's just saying this because of her state. What do you think?
Quote #8
The loneliness he would feel as a man without all his American feelings. (6.53)
This is a touching moment. Love of country can be strong. Although some of the Swede's innermost reasons for loving America are put forth as naïve (and even dangerous and deluded), he is also always sincere.
Quote #9
The way his father talked to people, that got him, too, the American way his father said to the guy at the pump, "Fill 'er up, Mack. Check the front end, will ya, Chief?" (5.50)
If we didn't know better, we'd think the Swede just landed in America from some harsh planet and is reveling in its strange customs and funny speech.