How we cite our quotes: (Poem.Paragraph)
Quote #4
It had been a victory for him; he had outsmarted all of them—his parents, his older brothers, everyone who worked to keep him away from beer and out of trouble. (V.72)
Harley acts as though getting drunk is just a harmless game. The pleasure and playfulness he finds in drinking sometimes disguises the fact that he has a serious and dangerous addiction to alcohol.
Quote #5
Liquor was medicine for the anger that made them hurt, for the pain of the loss, medicine for tight bellies and choked-up throats. (VI.12)
Liquor and medicine act in a similar way in the novel: they both ease or numb emotions. This provides temporary relief, but it doesn't ultimately heal the hurt that the veterans feel.
Quote #6
He drank the beer as if it were the tumbling ice-cold stream in the mountain canyon on the beer label. (VIII.10)
Compare this episode to the time Tayo drinks from the spring and tastes "the deep heartrock of the earth, where the water came from" (VI.33). Drinking the natural water feels like a gift from the earth, whereas drinking the beer (sarcastically compared here to water from a stream) only makes Tayo feel bitter.