How we cite our quotes:
Quote #1
"The façade of the building bore an array of saints in their niches and they had been shot up by American troops trying their rifles, the figures shorn of ears and noses and darkly mottled with leadmarks oxidized upon the stone" (2.155).
How's this for symbolic? We come across and old church where the statues of saints have been used for target practice by American soldiers. It looks like people in this world believe in only one thing, and that's their own satisfaction. And the right to bear arms.
Quote #2
"He prayed: Almighty God, if it ain't too far out of the way of things in your eternal plan do you reckon we could have a little rain down here" (4.20).
It's pretty funny that half the characters in this book kill people and say they don't believe in God. But when they wish for something small like a drop of rain, they come crawling back. Then again, it's always hard to tell whether these men are being sarcastic.
Quote #3
"Blood, he said. This country is give much blood. This Mexico. This is a thirsty country. The blood of a thousand Christs. Nothing" (8.34).
An old Mexican man in a bar explains to the kid and his buddies that there's been a lot of blood shed in Mexico (and he's right). But when he compares the blood to the blood of "a thousand Christs" and then calls it "nothing," we realize he's saying something deeply philosophical. He's basically saying that the Christian world celebrates one guy who died on a cross. But in Mexico, there have been a thousand people just like Christ who've died, but it means nothing because there's so much death all around.