How we cite our quotes: (Part.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #10
Rachel left me. I saw her disappear into the crowd, her battered blue handbag swinging, the plump pale flesh on her upper arm oscillating a little, her hair tangled, her face dazed and tired. With an automatic hand she had scooped up the hanging shoulder strap. Then I saw her again, and again and again. Oxford Street was full of tired ageing women with dazed faces, pushing blindly against each other like a herd of animals. I ran across the road and northwards towards my flat. (1.21.134)
Remember that earlier scene in which Bradley Pearson compares his attempts to comfort his sister to "the ineffectual gesture of a small child trying to pat an animal" (1.7.111)? In this scene, Bradley goes even further in seeing the middle-aged women around him as less than human. From his point of view, they're as mindless and distraught as cattle or sheep. No wonder Bradley falls for the young, boyish Julian rather than an adult woman.