How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
There was no mistake. The leathery wings, the little horns, the barbed tail—all were there. The most terrible of all legends had come to life, out of the unknown past. Yet now it stood smiling, in ebon majesty, with the sunlight gleaming upon its tremendous body, and with a human child resting trustfully on either arm. (5.18)
The appearance of the Overlords directly ties into the many symbols and images of religion, especially Christianity. Hop over to our "Symbols" section for a whole discussion on how that fits into the story.
Quote #5
In the Middle Ages, people believed in the Devil and feared him. But this was the twenty-first century: could it be that, after all, there was such a thing as racial memory? (6.12)
The novel is posing a question to the reader, and while the story takes a few stabs at answering this question, it ultimately leaves the answer open for you to answer yourself. Is our fear of things, creatures, and even other people who do not look like us genetic? Can our mind overcome our genes?
Quote #6
Jan Rodricks, though he seldom appreciated his luck, would have been even more discontented in an earlier age. A century before, his color would have been a tremendous, perhaps an overwhelming, handicap. Today, it meant nothing. (8.2)
The Civil Rights movement had yet to get in full swing in the early 1950s when the novel was written. So the idea that a person of African descent could live in equality with someone of European descent—anywhere in the world—was definitely the stuff of the future (ugh to the 1950s).